Acting president orders punishment against those neglecting anti-AI measures

YONHAP

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Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Wednesday ordered stern punishment against those neglecting quarantine regulations to contain avian influenza (AI) that has ravaged chicken farms across the country since mid-November.

During a daily AI meeting, Hwang also cited moral laxity as one cause for the rapid spread that has forced quarantine officials to slaughter more than 9.81 million poultry this winter.

"There are concerns that the spread of AI has become faster due to poultry farm operators and quarantine officials who have failed to faithfully comply with quarantine rules," Hwang said during the meeting with related government officials and experts.

The acting president enumerated a set of cases involving those who have yet to install disinfection facilities in the AI-contaminated regions and those who have failed to sanitize their vehicles after entering poultry farms.

Noting that a chicken farm, suspected of being contaminated with AI, has distributed its poultry products across the country, Hwang called for the agriculture ministry to take "immediate and necessary" steps to prevent a recurrence.

The meeting came a day after Hwang ordered the agriculture ministry to convene on a daily basis to quickly contain AI.

The first outbreak of bird flu in nearly seven months was reported at a chicken farm in Haenam, about 420 kilometers south of Seoul, on Nov. 16.

It was caused by the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain of bird flu, a new type of virus that was first detected in South Korea.

(YONHAP)