How many chickens?
August 17, 2006 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Honestly, I have no idea how many chickens have been slaughtered or culled worldwide. But here are some numbers from the Asian front, where the race to stop bird flu is against time and resources.
Last week, Indonesia claimed it culled more than 29 million chickens and vaccinated more than 260 million chickens over the last two years. Compared to the country’s estimated one billion chicken, and given that bird flu has spread throughout the country, this effort is nothing.
Thailand reportedly has culled more than 300,000 chickens in one province alone July 31st in an effort to abruptly stop the spread of bird flu across the country. In this Nakhon Phanom province, about 70 farms are involved in the mass culling. Just the week before that, 40,000 chickens were culled. Some 29 provinces have been put under a “high avian flu risk” where the presence of the H5N1 virus has been detected. Millions of chickens have already been culled.
China has culled more than 25 million chicken.
Cambodia recently culled more than 400 ducks when an outbreak was found in Prey Veng this week.
[Sources: CIDRAP; People's Daily Online; DNA world]
Tags: Asian, avian influenza, bird flu deaths, H5N1
