Poultry culled to curb bird flu
27/11/2006 10:54  - (SA)  

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Seoul - South Korea has killed nearly 100 000 chickens and ducks to try to prevent the spread of bird flu after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain at a chicken farm last week, officials said on Monday.

Quarantine officials have killed 96 000 poultry within a 500-metre radius of the outbreak site in Iksan, about 250km south of Seoul, the agriculture ministry said.

South Korea plans to cull a total of 236 000 birds and an unspecified number of other animals like pigs, dogs and cats in the area by Thursday, the ministry said. It also plans to destroy some six million eggs.

Officials determined on Saturday that the outbreak was caused by the H5N1 virus and began culling birds on Sunday.

South Korea killed 5.3 million birds during the last known outbreak of bird flu in 2003.

The H5N1 virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and has killed at least 153 people worldwide.

- AP

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