Five batches of chicken slaughtered at a wholesale poultry market in Taipei have been confirmed to be infected with avian influenza subtype H5, the Taipei City Animal Protection Office said yesterday.
Veterinarians at the market on Saturday night and early on Sunday notified the office about suspected avian flu symptoms in the chickens, including skin anomalies and internal bleeding.
The office sent the suspected chickens to a laboratory for inspection and disinfected the market, it said.
The office also suspended slaughtering operations for 24 hours and seized 304 chickens that had been slaughtered.
The chickens came from poultry farms in the Kaohsiung metropolitan area and Miaoli, Pingtung and Yunlin counties, Animal Protection Office Director Yen I-feng (嚴一峰) said, adding that the office has alerted authorities in the areas, telling them that the farms should be inspected.
The seized chickens were destroyed, Yen said.
The spread of avian influenza would slow down with rising temperatures, the office said, but added that isolated cases are still being discovered, and urged people to eat only well-cooked poultry and eggs and buy certified products.
The Centers for Disease Control last week announced that an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N6 avian influenza A virus that began in February was under control.
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