On October 14, 2016, Professor Chang-Seon Song of the Department of Veterinary Medicine published an article titled “Role for Migratory Wild Birds in the Global Spread of Avian Influenza H5N8” in Science magazine as a member of the Global Consortium for H5N8 and Related Influenza Viruses. Research by the consortium showed that migrant ducks, swans, and geese that meet at Arctic breeding grounds have caused the H5N8 virus outbreaks in Europe and North America.
Since the outbreak of a subtype H5N8 virus in Korea in January 2014, researchers from 32 institutions in 16 countries, led by Dr. Samantha Lycett of the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh and Dr. Thijs Kuiken of Erasmus University Medical Center, formed the consortium to share data and conduct joint research in order to understand the causes of the spread of viruses. From Korea, Dr. Youn Jeong Lee of the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency participated in addition to Professor Song and PhD student Jung-Hoon Kwon at Konkuk University.