More culls in South Korea
Four confirmed cases of bird flu in the southwest of South Korea have prompted the culling of another 4,000 pigs and 2,000 poultry, officials said over the weekend.
Pigs that were found within the restriction zone, 500 metres from a bird flu outbreak site, were slaughtered as a precaution, quarantine authorities said.
The agriculture ministry last week confirmed a fourth case of bird flu, at a duck farm at Asan, 90 kilometres south of Seoul.
“We included the pigs in the list to make sure that we should completely stop the spread of the AI (avian influenza) virus,” said Kim Chang-Seop, director of animal health at the agriculture ministry .
Authorities have culled in total 21,146 ducks, 2,820 chickens and 4,177 pigs in the Asan area, according to the ministry.
The first case in almost three years was confirmed on November 25 at a poultry farm at Iksan 230 kilometres south of Seoul.
Officials slaughtered 771,000 birds in the Iksan area after last month’s two outbreaks there of the H5N1 virus.
Another 365,000 birds were slaughtered at nearby Gimje.
Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi province has also slaughtered 62,000 chicks hatched from eggs from a farm infected by bird flu in Asan.
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