By Park Si-soo
The government confirmed Friday the country’s first cases of bird flu in nearly two years at two poultry farms, giving additional worries to an administration that is struggling to contain a fast-spreading foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said bird flu had been discovered at a farm in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and also one in Iksan, North Joella Province.
“Tests showed birds at the farms were infected with the virulent H5N1 strain of avian influenza,” said Lee Sang-soo, head of the ministry's animal quarantine division.
The government will cull 10,000 ducks in Cheonan and 17,000 chickens in Iksan to try and prevent the contagious disease from spreading. Nearly 92,000 other breeding birds near the two affected farms will also be slaughtered as a precautionary measure, Lee said.
The ministry has designated regions within a radius of three kilometers from the farms as hazardous areas, banning the movement of any poultry. The ministry also dispatched inspectors to the farms to uncover the cause of the outbreak.
The discovery immediately lifted the country’s bird flu alert from blue to yellow, which is the third highest level on a four-grade scale. The ministry immediately opened an office to control nationwide monitoring and quarantine of the disease.
South Korea has been hit by bird flu three times ㅡ the latest outbreak in April 2008 saw a record 8.46 million breeding birds, worth 264 billion won ($219 million) culled.
Meanwhile, Seoul Zoo and Seoul Children’s Grand Park will be shut from today until at least Jan. 10 to protect the animals there.
The move came after the government raised the alert level for FMD to “serious” this week.
The two zoos have more than 6,900 animals, birds and reptiles and many of them are genetically susceptible to bird flu or FMD, officials at the zoos said.
Despite government efforts, the foot-and-mouth outbreak is spreading faster and further across the country.
Two cattle farms in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, tested positive for the disease, Friday. More than 60 cases have been confirmed nationwide since the first outbreak in Andong on Nov. 29. The government has culled more than 520,000 and vaccinated 313,000 animals at 12,000 farms nationwide.
