November 27, 2007

Japan halts South Korean poultry imports over bird flu outbreak
 

Japan has temporarily halted poultry imports from South Korea following a bird flu outbreak among ducks in that country, the Japanese Agriculture Ministry said on Monday (November 26, 2007).

The ministry said the measure was taken as a precaution to protect domestic birds.

The latest outbreak in South Korea - the first since March - involved "low pathogenic" H7 strain, which has not been known to spread to humans, not the deadly H5N1 strain, but quarantine workers slaughtered about 17,000 ducks at a farm in Gwangju, about 330 kilometers southwest of the capital.

Tokyo has also asked Seoul for more details about the outbreak.

Japan lifted in July its earlier ban on South Korean poultry imports following a previous bird flu outbreak a year ago. Japan imported less than 1,300  tonnes chicken - only 0.2 percent of Japanese consumption - from South Korea in 2006, the Agriculture Ministry said.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or led to the slaughter of millions of birds in recent years. It remains difficult for humans to catch, but has killed at least 206 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.