S. Korea culls 400,000 birds, reports bird flu case near Seoul

By Park Sae-jin Posted : November 22, 2016, 17:01 Updated : November 22, 2016, 17:01

[Yonhap News Photo]


South Korea confirmed a bird flu outbreak at an egg farm near Seoul Tuesday after nearly 400,000 chickens and ducks were culled in southwestern provinces.

At a farm in Yangju north of Seoul, authorities detected the H5N6 virus and slaughtered 15,000 layer chickens, the agriculture ministry said.

The ministry detected the H5N6 virus for the first time in South Korea two weeks ago in Emseong, 90 kilometers (54 miles) south of Seoul. Health authorities have been put on high alert because the virus killed six people in China.

Emseong was the epicenter of South Korea's worst bird flu outbreak in 2014 when some 1.8 million ducks and chickens were slaughtered.

So far the ministry has culled some 400,000 chickens and ducks in North Chungcheong Province and South Jeolla provinces, as the virus appeared to be spreading quickly with a higher mortality rate than previous cases caused by H5N1 and H5N8.

H5N6 was first detected in China in March 2014 and spread rapidly to Vietnam, Laos, and Hong Kong.

Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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