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 The country's agriculture ministry said the H5N8
strain of bird flu had been detected on six poultry farms and that
there had been 13 cases in migratory birds since the first outbreak
earlier this month.
No human infection has been reported, while the ministry is looking
into four additional reports from poultry farms and more than 50
other suspected cases in migratory birds, it said in a statement on
Monday.
Asia's fourth-largest economy has had four bird flu outbreaks in the
past 10 years, without any cases of human infection reported.
South Korea will slaughter over 1.4 million farm birds, including
644,000 that have already been killed, according to the ministry.
That would be under 1 percent of the country's total 160 million
poultry population.
The first case of H5N8 bird flu was found on January17 at a duck
farm in the southwestern province of North Jeolla, about 300 km (186
miles) from Seoul. The government is stepping up
disinfection measures for migratory bird at 37 sites across the
country as it suspects they are the source of the latest outbreak.
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It will also control the movement of some livestock workers in
affected areas ahead of the Luna New Year holidays from Thursday
through Sunday when many Koreans travel to family gatherings.
(Reporting by Jane Chung; editing by
Joseph Radford)
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