South Korea Confirms Bird Flu Outbreak*

By JAE-SOON CHANG
The Associated Press
Saturday, November 24, 2007; 1:14 AM

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's first bird flu outbreak in eight
months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country's south
Saturday.

The virus that caused the latest outbreak may be a "low pathogenic" H7
strain that has not been known to spread to humans, said an official at
the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Quarantine workers slaughtered about 17,000 ducks at the farm in
Gwangju, about 205 miles southwest of the capital, Seoul, the official
said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

The outbreak, South Korea's first since March, was confirmed on Friday,
the ministry official said.

Seven outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 virus hit poultry farms across South
Korea between November 2006 and March this year, resulting in the
slaughter of about 2.8 million birds.

The country declared itself free of bird flu in June after reporting no
new outbreaks for three months. The latest outbreak does not affect
South Korea's bird flu-free status because it involves a "low
pathogenic" virus, the ministry official said.

Since H5N1 reemerged in 2003, it has led to the death or slaughter of
hundreds of millions of birds and has killed 206 people worldwide,
according to the World Health Organization.