January 31, 2011

South Korea confirms two more bird flu outbreaks

South Korea on Thursday (Jan 27) has confirmed two additional bird flu outbreaks in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul despite nationwide quarantine efforts.

The farm ministry said the new cases were reported at poultry farms that raised chickens and pheasants in Pyeongtaek about 70 kilometres south of the capital city.

All 25,000 chickens and 2,000 pheasants on the farms were ordered to be culled and buried to prevent further spreading of the avian influenza that hit five provinces across the country after the first case was confirmed on December 31, the ministry said.

Officials also said that the two farms have been placed under quarantine with limits imposed on the movement of people and vehicles. Both farms are being decontaminated to kill off the virulent strain of the H5N1 virus that has been discovered.

The latest outbreaks bring the total number of bird flu cases detected by Seoul to 40 so far, with over 5.5 million birds destroyed.

Before the latest series of outbreaks, South Korea was hit by avian influenza three times before, with the last cases occurring in April 2008 and resulting in a record 8.46 million birds being culled at a cost of around KRW264 billion (US$236 million). Other outbreaks took place in the winter months of 2003-2004 and 2006-2007.