Gangwon Province has pledged an all-out effort to prevent the outbreak and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) during the winter season.
Jeon Jae-seop, director of the province's agricultural policy bureau, said Wednesday that prevention and early response are paramount in containing highly pathogenic AI. "We will work closely with relevant agencies to mount a full-scale quarantine effort during the migratory bird season, and will continue to strengthen our response capabilities so that a seamless disease-control system can be put into operation should an actual outbreak occur," he said.
To review its early-response quarantine system and reinforce cooperation among disease-control agencies, the province conducted a simulated highly pathogenic AI drill Tuesday at the Yanggu-gun Agricultural Technology Center, in a joint exercise with Yanggu-gun.
About 100 people took part in the drill, including officials from the Livestock Sanitation and Quarantine Support Headquarters, the Gangwon National University College of Veterinary Medicine, the provincial veterinary association, agricultural and livestock cooperatives, producer organizations, and quarantine civil servants from cities and counties across the province.
The simulation was based on a scenario in which a resident near Paro Lake in Yanggu-eup discovered two dead wild birds and reported the find, with subsequent testing confirming the presence of a highly pathogenic AI antigen.
To protect the roughly 250,000 poultry at farms in the county, Yanggu-gun demonstrated a full sequence of quarantine measures as if responding to a real outbreak — purchasing and culling birds at small poultry farms within a 3-kilometer radius of where the carcasses were found, deploying an initial response team, conducting an epidemiological investigation, imposing movement restrictions, operating checkpoints, and carrying out culling and disinfection procedures.
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