SEOUL-- The number of layer chickens raised in South Korea rebounded in the first quarter from a year earlier due to a low base effect from the bird flu outbreak, data showed Thursday.

The number of layer chickens came to 70.43 million in the January-March period, up 8.3 million, or 13.4 percent, from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

Compared with three months earlier, the tally fell 2.18 million, or 3 percent.

The rebound came as chicken farms resumed operations after the outbreak of bird flu subsided.

South Korea reported the outbreak of avian influenza between November 2020 and April 2021, and culled about 30 million poultry.

Since November last year, the country has reported another outbreak of bird flu. But the number of highly pathogenic AI cases declined around 60 percent on-year between November and March, according to the agricultural ministry.

The number of ducks reached 5.71 million in the first quarter, up 45.6 percent from a year earlier due to the base effect caused by bird flu.

The number of beef cattle raised in South Korea increased 4.1 percent on-year to 3.51 million and that of pigs rose 0.2 percent to 11.17 million.

Source: Yonhap News Agency