Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/30
By: Meng-ju Lin and Lillian Lin

Chiayi, Aug. 30 (CNA) More than 6,000 ducks on a poultry farm in Chiayi County in southern

CNA file photo

Taiwan were culled because epidemic prevention authorities detected the H5N8 avian flu virus in dead ducks at the farm.

An official from the Council of Agriculture said Sunday that some 200 ducks in the poultry farm were found dead over the past few days. To prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, the epidemic prevention authorities decided to cull all the ducks at the farm.

While none of the other 13 poultry farms within a one kilometer radius had been found to be contaminated by the bird flu virus, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine is tracing the origin of the outbreak by checking poultry farms that raise hatchlings in the neighboring county of Yunlin.     [FULL  STORY]