South Korea Bird Flu Culls Rise

South Korea quarantine officials have slaughtered more than 9.81 million head of poultry this winter, according to officials, with another 2.53 million chickens and ducks across the country to be culled in coming days, said Lee Yong-jin, deputy director handling the issue at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.That would raise to more than 12 million the total number of poultry culled since November 16, when the first outbreak was reported at a chicken farm in Haenam, south of Seoul.The outbreak, the first in nearly seven months, was caused by the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain of bird flu, a new type of virus that was first detected in South Korea.The quarantine authorities said migratory birds are a source of the outbreak of bird flu as there have been no reports of infections through the movement of people or livestock.This is nearing the level of bird culls that South Korea undertook in 2014 in another outbreak of bird flu. Key will be whether or not this reduction of more than 10% of their poultry flock will translate into reduced feed demand. That could impact demand for U.S. corn but so far South Korean buyers have not backed away from the market.