This picture taken Aug. 1, 2023, reveals a veterinarian taking a sample from a cat at an animal shelter in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, after South Korea reported extremely pathogenic bird influenza cases in cats. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s farming ministry said Wednesday it has actually found an H5 bird influenza (AI) stress in cat food, and bought its producer to remember and destroy the impacted items.
Last month, a cat living at a shelter in Seoul’s Gwanak district passed away after revealing breathing signs, and it was discovered Monday to have actually been contaminated with an extremely pathogenic H5N1 bird influenza stress, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Follow-up tests on the center revealed that the H5 infection was found in cat food utilized there, and its producer, Nature’s Raw, in the city of Gimpo, west of Seoul, had actually stopped working to comply with due sanitation treatments, the ministry said.
Whether the infection from the cat food is extremely pathogenic will be figured out in about 2 days.
“The company had not fully followed necessary sterilization steps over the course of manufacturing products since May 25. The government ordered the company to stop producing and selling the items, and to recall and destroy them,” the ministry said in a release.
In the wake of the case, the ministry chose to launch an examination into all producers of animal food utilizing chicken, duck and other meats.
Concerns have actually grown over the spread of bird influenza amongst cats and other animals, as the nation reported AI cases in 2 cats at a shelter in Seoul’s Yongsan Ward recently, marking the very first infections of the infection in mammals given that 2016.
People who have actually had contact with the cats in the Gwanak and Yongsan shelters have actually disappointed any signs, and there has actually not been a human AI infection through cats or other mammals.
But the health authorities are carefully monitoring them, as the incubation duration for human AI cases is understood to be 10 days.
(Yonhap)
