SKorea culls 771,000 birds over new flu outbreak
Pastor Dale Morgan
SKorea culls 771,000 birds over new flu outbreak*
Dec 04 7:23 AM US/Eastern
South Korea has culled some 771,000 chickens since it reported two new
bird flu outbreaks in its southwest late last month.
The mass culling began after the flu hit a poultry farm at Iksan, 230
kilometers (140 miles) southwest of Seoul, on November 22 before
spreading to a second farm nearby two days later.
The Iksan city government said in a statement on Sunday the number of
poultry slaughtered totaled some 771,000 as of Sunday, after a
military-backed quarantine in the areas around the disease-hit farms.
Prime Minister Han Myeong-Sook visited Iksan Sunday and expressed
satisfaction at the mass culling and other quarantine measure taken by
local governments against the avian flu, Yonhap news agency said.
Health officials had culled and buried 158,000 chickens within a
500-meter (546-yard) radius of the outbreaks, and on Thursday extended
the culling to all farms in a three-kilometer radius.
In the 500-meter quarantine zone, more than 440 pigs and dogs were also
killed amid complaints from animal rights activists.
On Friday, military troops were deployed to run checkpoints near the
affected farms on the outskirts of Iksan, the first time the military
has been called to help in the crisis.
The latest bird flu outbreak in Iksan marks the first emergence of the
potentially deadly H5N1 virus in South Korea in three years.
South Korea was the first country to report avian flu when the latest
outbreaks, the largest and most severe on record, began in Asia in mid-2003.
From December 2003 to March 2004, 5.3 million ducks and chickens were
destroyed at a cost of 150 billion won (160 million dollars). In
December last year the nation had declared itself free of the virus.
H5N1, which is spread through contact with sick animals, has killed more
than 150 people worldwide since late 2003 and triggered mass culls of
tens of millions of poultry.