March 22, 2004

South Korea Reports New Cases Of Bird Flu

South Korean authorities have reported new cases of bird flu in the country, the first outbreak in one and a half months.

Chickens at a farm in Yangju, north of Seoul, and a magpie in Yangsan, 420 kilometers south of Seoul, were found infected with the avian influenza, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in a news release.

In Yangju, the authorities decided to cull about 400,000 chickens and ducks at 20 farms within a 3-kilometer radius and set up checkpoints to deny access to the area within a 10-kilometer radius, it said.

On March 4, some chickens started to died of what was then diagnosed with a liver disease. The authorities were recalling 1,570 chickens shipped out of the farm, according to ministry officials.

Of 99 magpies and one crow checked, one magpie tested positive for the avian flue, officials said.

The recurrence comes at a time when South Korea was on the verge of declaring itself free from bird flu, with no new suspected cases reported since Feb. 5.

The virus can subsist in dust for two weeks and for at least 35 days in feces. Italian authorities waited about eight months before declaring their country free of bird flu after an outbreak in January 1998.

The H5N1 virus, which was first detected at a poultry farm in the central part of the country in mid-December, had affected 18 farms.

Despite signs of abating earlier this year, the disease recurred in late January, dashing hopes for an early recovery of the poultry industry.

South Korea culled nearly 5 million chickens and ducks to contain the spread of the H5N1 virus that causes the disease, doling out 42.3 billion won (US$35 million) for compensation.

However, there were no signs that the disease crossed the species barrier to humans in South Korea. None of the more than 1,500 people who were exposed to the flu has shown any symptoms, health officials said.

Although most strains of H5N1 are not transmittable to humans, South Koreans avoided eating chicken or duck, causing prices to drop by nearly 40 percent.

However, a government-led campaign succeeded in restoring public confidence in poultry, dissipating overblown concerns about safety. It helped the poultry industry, devastated by the virus, to get back on its feet.

Domestic chicken consumption, buffeted by the onset of bird flu in Asia, returned to a level seen before the outbreak here with the help of large-scale promotion campaigns led by the government and local retailers.