TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A confirmed and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI A) (H5N5) outbreak at a chicken farm in Yanshuei District, Tainan City on Thursday (April 16) resulted in the culling of 8,624 chickens in the farm.

The chicken farm reported to the city’s Animal Health Inspection and Protection Office that there were abnormal deaths of the chickens at the farm, which were confirmed to have been caused by an H5N5 outbreak. In addition to the culling of all chickens at the farm on Thursday, 560 kilograms of eggs were also sent to incinerators to be destroyed, CNA reported.

The animal inspection and protection office's deputy head, Chuang Wei-chao (莊惟超), said that the office also collected samples from areas near the farm in order to monitor the health of chickens raised locally. The office also continued to dispatch disinfection trucks to chicken farms across the city to disinfect roads near farms and reduce the viral load in the environment to prevent avian flu outbreaks from happening, Chuang added.

There have been confirmed avian flu outbreaks at 35 chicken farms in Taiwan so far this year, and recently Tainan has seen an uptick of farm outbreaks, the deputy director added.