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 The heightened alarm status comes as the country grapples with an
outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu that started a month
ago. Since then, South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, has
culled over 12 percent of its poultry population to contain the
spread of the virus.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a
statement released on Thursday that it will come up with detailed
measures to combat the disease under the higher alert status after
consulting with related ministries.
The ministry had already ramped up quarantine measures to tackle the
spread of the H5N6 virus including issuing a temporary nationwide
movement ban as an increasing number of farms have reported
outbreaks.
There have been 53 cases of the virus confirmed since mid-November,
with another 21 cases being tested, according to the ministry
statement.
Outbreaks of avian influenza have been reported in Japan and several
European countries including France, which raised its bird flu risk
level to high last week.
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Cases of human infections from the H5N6 virus have been previously
reported elsewhere including China, where it killed 10 people, but
no cases of human infections have been detected in South Korea.
(Reporting By Jane Chung; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
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