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update:Nov 29, 2006
Cats and dogs to be culled to prevent AI spread
Quarantine officials in South Korea reportedly intend to begin culling cats
and dogs, as well as pigs, in the areas affected by the recent avian influenza
outbreak at a chicken farm.
All dogs, cats and pigs (as well as 236,000 poultry) in the 500-metre
bird
flu protection zone will be killed by Thursday, according to local
reports.
Animal health experts have called the move an “extreme measureâ€,
considering there is no scientific evidence that proves dogs or cats can pass
the disease to humans.
"It's highly unusual, and it's not a science-based decision," said Peter
Roeder, an animal health expert with the
UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation. "We've got absolutely
no reason to believe they're important," he said. Roeder published research
about cats and bird flu earlier this year in the
journal Nature.
Quarantine officials have already killed 125,000 chickens near the outbreak
site, about 155 miles south of Seoul, the Agriculture Ministry said. About 6
million eggs also will be destroyed, it said. The ministry did not say how many
dogs, cats and other animals would be killed.
Slaughtering cats and dogs near an area infected with bird flu would be
highly unusual in Asia. Indonesia has killed pigs in the past, but most
countries concentrate solely on destroying poultry.
An official at the Agriculture Ministry said South Korea slaughtered cats
and dogs along with 5.3 million birds during the last outbreak of bird flu in
2003.
Editor WorldPoultry
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