Chickens raised by the Council of Agriculture’s Livestock Research Institute in Tainan, which were to have been used to help ensure environmental safety at poultry farms, were exterminated on Monday night after a highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza subtype was discovered in one of the institute’s hatcheries.
The incident occurred as the council was working out the logistics to help poultry farms recuperate from a prolonged period of avian flu outbreaks.
Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said the institute originally bred about 180 chicks at a recently completed hatchery to serve as “sentinel chickens,” which are sent to farms to ensure that environments are free of viruses, and initial inspections confirmed the fowl to be clean.
The number of chickens was later increased to 254, due to a growing demand for sentinel chickens, Chang said.
Just before 80 chickens were to be distributed to poultry farmers, a second-stage scan on Tuesday last week yielded positive results for avian influenza virus, and further analysis confirmed that the facility had been infected by the H5N2 virus and its highly pathogenic variant detected in January, she said.
In addition, some of the chickens had developed antibodies for “H5” hemagglutinin, thereby disqualifying them from their intended use, as sentinel chickens must not be infected or carry any antibodies, Chang said.
Two chickens had died before the cull, she said.
The infection might have been caused by the chickens coming into contact with wild birds, which could have breached nets set up along the perimeter of the breeding site, or veterinarians entering and leaving the facility while inspecting sentinel chickens, Chang said, adding that how the infection occurred is being investigated by a task force under the council’s purview.
More samples were taken yesterday at four other hatcheries run by the institute, which house 11 species of about 6,000 breeder chickens.
The number of poultry exterminated due to avian flu outbreaks since late last year stood at about 4.45 million as of Monday night.
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