April 21, 2008

South Korea culls 5 million poultry over bird flu
 

Almost five million poultry have been slaughtered in South Korea to contain the spread of bird flu since it hit the country earlier this month, the Agriculture Ministry said Sunday.

The bird flu has hit 25 farms with 4.8 million chickens and ducks culled since the first outbreak on April 1, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry's statement did not specify how many of the 25 outbreaks, though all involving the H5 virus, were of the "deadly" H5N1 strain that sometimes claims human lives.

"We have not made a full count of H5N1 outbreaks yet, which should be released after putting this epidemic under control first," Kim Chang-Sup, a director handling bird flu at the ministry, told AFP Sunday.

"Simple test kits we use now in the field can verify if it is of avian influenza or not, but not of a subtype. If we confirm outbreaks, our priority goes to culling, not testing."

Kim denied some news reports that 25 outbreaks were all of the H5N1 strain. 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 army 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, 260 kilometers south of Seoul.

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.