South Korea: Poultry Mar 8+

[Sally Furniss]

Report: Fresh bird flu outbreak in South Korea

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/08/asia/AS-GEN-SKorea-Bird-Flu.php

SEOUL, South Korea: An outbreak of bird flu has struck at a duck farm in central South Korea, an official said Thursday, but it was not immediately clear if it was the H5N1 strain, which is deadly to humans.

The outbreak occurred in Chonan, 92 kilometers (57 miles) south of Seoul, said an official with the city government. The case was first reported on Tuesday when 31 ducks died and was confirmed Thursday, the official said, declining to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

It was the seventh bird flu outbreak reported since November. The six previous outbreaks were confirmed to be the H5N1virus.

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: South Korea: Poultry Mar 8+

Fresh bird flu case confirmed in S. Korea

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20070308/610000000020070308140614E6.html

SEOUL, March 8 (Yonhap) -- A fresh case of highly-virulent bird flu was discovered at a poultry farm south of Seoul Thursday for the first time in just a month, government officials said.

The latest outbreak was reported on Feb. 10 in Anseong, about 15 kilometers north of Cheonan where a similar bird flu case was detected in January.

It is the seventh bird flu case since Nov. 25 when the first outbreak was reported on a poultry farm in Iksan, about 230 kilometers south of Seoul, in three years.

Authorities started an investigation into the fresh case Tuesday when a farmer reported that about 30 ducks at the farm died of an unknown cause, a ministry official said, adding that the remaining 13,000 on the farm will be slaughtered.

The official said the quarantine authorities were to cordon off an area within a three-kilometer radius of the duck farm and destroy 55,000 chickens and ducks there.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization believes the virus can mutate into a highly virulent strain that can easily be transmitted among humans if left unchecked.

More than 250 people have been infected by the virus since 2003, of whom at least 161 are believed to have died from the disease, it said.

In 2003 and 2004, South Korea destroyed more than 5 million poultry to curb the spread of the disease. No South Korean has yet to be infected.