December 22, 2006

South Korea says fourth bird flu case confirmed

A fourth case of bird flu has been discovered in South Korea, a government official said on Thursday, raising concerns that quarantine measures implemented had failed.

South Korea confirmed in November its first case of the H5N1 strain in about three years.

The three initial cases were found in farms in the North Cholla province, around 170 km (100 miles) south of Seoul.

The latest case emerged at a duck farm in Asan, South Chungcheong province, about 100 km further north. Quarantine authorities would cull 23,000 poultry within a 3-km radius of the farm.

Between December 2003 and March 2004, about 400,000 poultry at South Korean farms were infected by bird flu. During that outbreak, the country destroyed 5.3 million birds.

Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have been confirmed in about 50 countries and territories.