POCHEON, SOUTH KOREA: A chicken farm in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province reported a suspected case of avian influenza (AI) on Wednesday, prompting quarantine officials to impose a temporary ban on poultry transportation in the region, Yonhap news agency reported, told Bernama.

The farm with 197,000 laying chickens reported that about 30 birds have died since Tuesday, and the preliminary test showed that they were infected with AI, the provincial government said.

Quarantine officials immediately banned the movement of poultry, equipment and livestock breeders located within three kilometres of the affected farm in Pochen, 46 kilometres north of Seoul, to further contain the virus.

An in-depth analysis is currently underway to figure out whether the case involves a highly pathogenic strain, which leads to high death rates for birds, the provincial government said.

The latest case raised alarms among quarantine officials as highly pathogenic bird flu has been spreading across the country’s southwestern region, a major poultry production area, since November.

On Wednesday, the agriculture ministry confirmed a total of nine poultry farms in Jeolla Province have been infected with the virulent H5N6 bird flu virus.

The government said it culled 36,700 ducks at three farms and has been carrying out disinfection at poultry farms and butchering facilities in the region.