January 15, 2004

 

 

South Korea Ups Efforts To Fight Bird Flu

 

South Korea has stepped up quarantine efforts in a bid to contain bird flu from spreading further. 

 

A tight quarantine zone has been established around a poultry farm in Yangsan, 390 kilometers (234 miles) southeast of Seoul, where health authorities detected the bird flu virus Monday, the agriculture ministry said.

 

It was South Korea's first confirmed outbreak in nine days.

 

The highly contagious disease appeared to have been brought under control last month after hitting 15 areas nationwide, forcing the slaughter of nearly two million chickens and ducks.

 

"We are culling all chickens in the affected area with the movement of poultry strictly restricted," Kim Chang-Seob, head of the ministry's animal health division, told AFP on Wednesday.

 

The new case prompted government officials to strengthen quarantine efforts in other areas, he said, adding the virus could survive in dust for two weeks and for at least 35 days in excrement.

 

Some 88,000 chickens and ducks are being killed and buried in Yangsan, the ministry said, adding it would consider culling all poultry in nearby farms with a three-kilometer radius.

 

Some 1.8 million of poultry including chickens and ducks have been culled since the disease surfaced on December 15, Kim said.

 

South Korean health authorities have suggested this strain could be a variant which poses no harm to humans.

 

Nonetheless poultry consumption has plunged, sending chicken prices plummeting. Chicken exports have also slowed with China, Hong Kong and Japan banning the import of poultry or bird products from South Korea.

 

The strain decimated poultry stocks in Hong Kong in 1997 before leaping species and killing six people, prompting a cull of the territory's entire poultry stock.

 

The World Health Organization confirmed Monday that the deaths of two children and one adult in Vietnam were caused by the H5N1 virus.

 

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the H5N1 virus can spread from poultry to people but not easily from person to person.