S. Korea investigating new suspected case of bird flu, caseload now at 82
South Korea's agricultural ministry said Monday it is currently investigating another suspected case of highly pathogenic bird flu linked to poultry farms, with the country's total caseload standing at 82 since November last year.
The latest suspected farm-related case came from an egg farm in Anseong, 77 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The number of cases from wild birds also piled up to reach 125.
Authorities have destroyed 24.8 million poultry to prevent the spread of the disease, which led to a sharp increase in the consumer price of related goods.
The average price of fresh eggs shot up 38.8 percent on-year over the past week, with those of chicken and duck meat also rising 15.7 percent and 35.4 percent, respectively.
South Korea revised its anti-animal disease law in 2018 to cull all poultry within a 3-kilometer radius of infected farms.
The revision came after the country reported a whopping 340 cases of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza traced to poultry farms between October 2016 and January 2017. (Yonhap)