April 21, 2008

 

South Korea testing duck farms for bird flu

 

 

South Korea Monday (April 21, 2008) started testing duck farms for bird flu as part of intensified efforts to fight the disease, the agriculture ministry said.

 

The 11-day operation will cover 260 farms across the country, it said. The disease is latent in ducks for a longer period than in chickens.

 

Bird flu has hit 26 farms, with 4.86 million chickens and ducks slaughtered since the first outbreak on April 1, the ministry said, adding that it plans eventually to cull a total of 5.3 million birds.

 

Some 5.6 million were slaughtered in a previous outbreak between late 2003 and early 2004.

 

Kim Chang-Sup, the ministry director handling bird flu, told AFP the selected duck farms include all 80 breeding farms plus others chosen to provide a statistical sample nationwide.

 

The epidemic has spread largely in the southwestern Jeolla provinces since the deadly H5N1 strain was first reported at a chicken farm in Gimje, 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of Seoul.

 

The ministry says all 26 outbreaks involve the H5 strain but did not specify how many were of the H5N1 subtype that can be fatal for humans. Officials have privately confirmed at least seven H5N1 outbreaks.

 

Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo has called for an all-out fight against bird flu, with an alert extended to the whole country. Hundreds of police and troops have taken part in the quarantine and culling efforts.

 

Quarantine officials have been slaughtering poultry at 141 restaurants or farms visited by a dealer who was found to have taken hundreds of ducks from an infected farm at Gimje.

 

South Korea reported seven cases of H5N1 infection between November 2006 and March last year, resulting in the temporary suspension of poultry exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere.

 

But last June the World Organization for Animal Health classified the country as free from the disease.

 

The H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003. No South Koreans are known to have contracted the disease.