South Korea kills all poultry in Seoul after bird flu reported
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SEOUL, South Korea: South Korean officials said Monday they had killed Seoul's entire poultry population to curb the spread of bird flu following a fresh outbreak of the disease in the capital.
Quarantine officials destroyed 15,000 chickens, ducks, pheasants and turkeys raised in farms, restaurants, schools and homes in the city, said Kim Yoon-kyu, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
The Seoul government said in a statement that the slaughter was necessary to contain the disease. It said it will now focus on preventing live poultry from being brought into Seoul.
The slaughter began Sunday night, hours after authorities recorded Seoul's second outbreak of bird flu in less than a week.
The slaughter did not affect parrots, parakeets and canaries because they have little chance of spreading the disease, Kim said.
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Government tests were under way to determine whether the latest outbreak was caused by the deadly H5N1 virus, said Kim Chang-seop, an official at the Agriculture Ministry. He said the results of the tests would be available as early as Monday night.
Outside Seoul, two outbreaks of the virus were reported Sunday in poultry farms in Busan and Ansung, Kim said. He said it was the first time the virus had been found in Busan — South Korea's second largest city.
The outbreaks were the 27th and 28th confirmed outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, said Agriculture Ministry spokesman Yoon Young-ku.
Bird flu began sweeping southern parts of the country last month for the first time in more than a year, forcing the slaughter of about 6.8 million birds.
The virus remains hard for people to catch, but scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads more easily between humans, with the potential to kill millions worldwide.
At least 240 people have died from bird flu since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Most human cases so far have been linked to contact with infected poultry.
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