Despite massive culling of chicken and ducks, a highly contagious bird flu continues to spread in South Korea with new cases confirmed and more suspected cases reported on Wednesday.
The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said in a statement that authorities have confirmed another case and received reports of six more suspected cases.
Racing to contain the fatal disease, authorities have ordered the killing of all chickens and ducks within 3km of all affected farms. Since the first outbreak 12 days ago, they have culled 700 000 chickens and ducks and have marked 600 000 more for slaughter, the ministry said.
Authorities are also culling poultry eggs in affected areas.
Also Wednesday, the Home Affairs Ministry said it will provide 500-million won ($42 000) each to three affected provinces — Chungbuk, Jeonnam and Kyongbuk — to buy disinfectants and enforce measures to prevent further spread of the disease. Chungnam province in central South Korea, where the first outbreak occurred, received the same amount of funds last week.
There have been 10 confirmed infected farms in South Korea and authorities are investigating 18 other suspected sites, the release said.
Authorities have said the farm birds have been infected with the H5N1 virus, but are still investigating whether it is the H5N1-97 strain that crossed from chickens to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people. Virus samples have been sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, for definitive testing, and results are expected to take a month.
South Korean officials have said that the flu is unlikely to be transmissible to humans since those exposed to the chickens have so far showed no signs of symptoms following the four- to five-day incubation period.
They say the risk of transmission to humans is small because most strains of H5N1 can’t cross over from birds to humans. Less severe bird flu outbreaks have hit South Korea periodically since 1996.
South Korea exports processed chicken and duck mostly to Japan, but a ban on exports following the first suspected case of bird flu made it unlikely that any infected meat was shipped, they said.
Also on Tuesday, the Chinese government announced that it is banning South Korean chicken imports to try blocking the spread of bird flu. — Sapa-AP