Gyeonggi-do Completes 'Quarantine Inspection' of 879 Commercial Poultry Farms

A Gyeonggi-do government official is entering a livestock barn for quarantine inspection.

Gyeonggi Province has completed the 'first biosecurity inspection' to prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) during the winter season, targeting poultry farms in the province with commercial-scale operations (3,000 chickens, 2,000 ducks) or more.

On the 11th, Gyeonggi Province announced that from June 21 to the 10th of this month, over 100 livestock quarantine officials from the province and city/county governments were deployed to conduct biosecurity inspections at 879 poultry farms within the province.

The inspection results showed that 144 farms, accounting for 16.4%, had deficiencies, with a total of 355 issues identified. The deficiencies included CCTV footage storage (for more than 30 days) with 44 cases (12.4%), anterooms with 40 cases (11.3%), fences with 37 cases (10.4%), lack of CCTV installation with 25 cases (7.1%), vehicle disinfection facilities with 21 cases (5.9%), and disinfection rooms and personnel disinfection facilities with 20 cases (5.6%), in that order.

An anteroom is a facility installed at the entrance of a livestock barn to block external pathogens from entering the barn. Fences are installed around the farm exterior to prevent entry of wild animals into the farm.

With the first inspection completed, Gyeonggi Province will conduct a second inspection from the 14th of this month to the 15th of next month, targeting farms where deficiencies were pointed out during the first inspection.

Choi Kyung-mook, Director of the Animal Quarantine and Hygiene Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "Highly pathogenic avian influenza mainly occurs when external environmental contaminants enter the farm, so it is important to strictly block the access of vehicles and people." He added, "We will focus our efforts on reorganizing biosecurity facilities before October, when the special avian influenza (AI) winter quarantine period begins."