Goheung-gun Launches Full-Scale Response to Block Spread of Highly Pathogenic AI

Gong Yeong-min, Goheung County Governor, Chairs Emergency Countermeasure Meeting and Conducts On-site Quarantine Situation Inspection

[Goheung=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Sim Jeong-woo] Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Gong Young-min) announced that on the 26th, after avian influenza AI (H5N1) was detected at a duck farm in Donggang-myeon, it activated an emergency response headquarters and launched an all-out effort to respond.

Governor Gong Young-min held an emergency countermeasure meeting on the 26th, checking the progress of quarantine measures such as emergency disinfection and situation management to block the spread of AI, and urged thorough quarantine management to prevent further spread to nearby farms. On the 27th, he visited the quarantine site to inspect the implementation status of the measures.

The measures included ▲ controlling access and disinfecting the affected farm ▲ setting a quarantine zone within a 10km radius of the affected farm and restricting movement ▲ preventive culling of all poultry within 500m of the affected farm (26,065 birds) ▲ installing control posts at the affected poultry farm. In addition, infection prevention education and vaccination were completed before deploying personnel for culling to prevent human infection.

Along with this, to prevent further spread to surrounding farms, a joint disinfection team was deployed to carry out disinfection, and rapid testing was conducted after sample collection from seven epidemiological target farms, all of which tested negative.

Goheung-gun is strengthening quarantine monitoring of all poultry farms to prevent any further spread damage, and is making every effort to implement quarantine measures through a public-private joint response by mobilizing all available resources to block AI spread and prevent horizontal transmission.

Going forward, the county will operate a quarantine countermeasure situation room to block highly pathogenic AI and maintain an emergency quarantine system including blocking quarantine measures.

A county official said, “The most important thing to block the spread of highly pathogenic AI is the implementation of blocking quarantine activities by poultry farms,” and added, “Please strictly follow farm quarantine rules such as disinfecting more than twice a day, controlling access of outsiders and vehicles, refraining from entering migratory bird habitats, and immediately reporting any suspected AI livestock to quarantine authorities.”

Goheung=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Sim Jeong-woo hss79@asiae.co.kr