Just days after Japan confirms their first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2018, Taiwan reports a new outbreak of the disease on their island.
Taiwan’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Bureau reported that there was an outbreak of the virus on a duck farm. 39,000 ducks were on the farm in the town of Yenpu, and all the birds have been culled as a preventative measure.
The ducks are likely to have been infected with H5N2, a strain that infected a chicken farm in the same town back in December 2017. The disease recently found on a chicken farm in Japan which resulting in the culling of 92,000 birds was the strain H5N6.
The area in south Taiwan is a common destination of migrating birds and, because of this, the area usually sees a peak of the disease in January until April. The bureau stated that there are several open duck farms in the same area and that biosecurity measures will be strictly imposed to help prevent further spreading.
