Korea tightens avian flu defenses as winter duck arrivals surge 2.9-fold

The environment ministry said Tuesday it will step up wild-bird surveillance and farm biosecurity ahead of the main winter migration, after a September survey at 10 major wintering sites found duck numbers up nearly threefold from a year earlier.

A survey by the National Institute of Biological Resources from Sept. 25 to 27 counted 57,036 waterbirds nationwide. At three sites comparable with September last year — the Han River estuary, Sihwa Lake and Sapgyo Lake — waterbird numbers rose 53.1 percent to 23,893, with ducks and other waterfowl most susceptible to highly pathogenic avian influenza up 189.7 percent to 18,678.

Overseas detections of the virus in wild birds have also more than doubled, to 2,957 in the January-August period from 1,432 a year earlier.

"Although the winter migratory birds have not yet arrived in earnest, duck species are increasing sharply and detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza are also rising overseas, so preemptive action is more important this winter than ever," said Lee Chae-eun, director general of the ministry's nature conservation bureau. She urged the public not to touch or move dead wild birds and to report them immediately to local authorities.

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment is concentrating monitoring on 22 early stopover sites and high-risk locations, and will expand surveillance points to 112 from 102, adding fecal sampling and searches for carcasses. It is also working with Mongolia, Japan and other countries to track migration routes with location trackers and analyze the genetic types of viruses detected at home and abroad.

If the virus is found in wild birds, a 10-kilometer radius around the detection site will be designated a surveillance zone, with people and vehicles barred for 21 days and intensified testing and disinfection at nearby poultry farms.

The agriculture ministry issued a highly pathogenic avian influenza risk alert to livestock farms nationwide on Sept. 30. Disinfection vehicles and drones are being deployed to clean roads around wintering sites and farm entrances, and 280 restricted zones for livestock vehicles have been set up so trucks bypass areas where the birds gather.

"From October, when the winter migratory birds arrive in full, the risk of the virus entering poultry farms will grow further," said Lee Dong-sik, director general of the agriculture ministry's quarantine policy bureau. He asked the public to avoid visiting rivers and reservoirs where birds congregate, and told poultry farmers to plow fields near their sheds and strictly block outside people and vehicles.