Amid concerns that new subtypes of avian influenza affecting waterfowl could spread to other birds, the Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday confirmed that chickens have been found infected with the H5N2 strain.
Samples from an organic chicken farm in Changhua County’s Shengang Township (伸港) are the first to test positive for the subtype, it said.
The H5N2 strain is a variant of a virus first seen locally in 2004, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said.
Photo: courtesy of the Changhua County Animal Disease Control Center
It is made up of six bases and bears the “H5” hemagglutinin of the H5N8 subtype found in South Korea last year and the “N2” neuraminidase of the H5N2 subtype discovered in China’s Jilin Province in 2011, she told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Neuraminidase allows viral cells to connect and disconnect from target cells. Hemagglutinin and neuraminidase are used to identify viral strains.
She said that the strain discovered on a chicken farm in Greater Tainan on Tuesday last week belonged to the traditional H5N2 subtype which, unlike its more recent variant, has just three bases.
Photo: CNA
Also, test results released yesterday showed that five more goose farms in Pingtung County were hit by the highly pathogenic H5N3 strain — detected on Friday and the latest in the series — raising the total number of farms hit by the strain to 10, including a Pingtung-based broiler goose farm, where H5N3 and the new H5N2 were discovered.
In addition, four broiler goose farms — one in Greater Taoyuan, two in Yunlin County and one in Chiayi County — as well as a breeding goose farm in Yunlin, were affected by H5N2 and H5N8.
Of the 216 farms sampled, 194 yielded positive test results for the viruses, affecting 351,036 birds, of which 140,704 have been exterminated, statistics showed.
To combat the outbreaks, Chang said the council has teamed up with the National Animal Industry Foundation to dispatch 590 veterinarians and inspectors to poultry farms and slaughterhouses to monitor poultry conditions and carry out surprise inspections to ensure that health certificates have been obtained for all fowl before they are slaughtered.
Chang said a poultry farmer in Changhua County’s Fangyuan Township (芳苑) reportedly transported 1,080 chickens exhibiting avian flu-like symptoms to a slaughterhouse in Pingtung on Saturday night.
The consignment was immediately delivered to a rendering plant to be properly disposed of after veterinarians at the site identified the symptoms, she added.
The farmer is to be fined for between NT$50,000 and NT$1 million (US$1,580 and US$31,600) under the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例) for a failure to report potential infections, she said.
The farm was shut down so it could be disinfected, she added.
Animal Husbandry Department division head Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全) said that while the prices of goose and duck meat and chicken eggs have remained stable over the past week, pork has seen a minor hike in the average transaction price, which rose from Friday price of NT$82.5 per kilogram to NT$84 on Saturday.
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