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South Korea says bird flu outbreak was H5N1 strain: report
By Wallace Witkowski
Last update: 11:27 a.m. EDT April 3, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- South Korea agriculture officials have identified a recent bird flu outbreak in the country as being the deadly H5N1 strain, The Associated Press reported Thursday. More than 300,000 chickens on a farm about 160 miles south of Seoul need to be slaughtered, the AP said. No human infections were reported.
S Korea confirms bird flu outbreak
SEOUL, April 3 (Xinhua) --
South Korean government said Thursday that it has confirmed a virulent bird flu outbreak in southwestern city of Gimje.
According to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the cause of outbreak taking place at an egg-laying farm in Gimje, 260 km south of Seoul, was confirmed as the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza.
The ministry said it will cull and bury 308,000 chickens within500 meters from the farm. All eggs from the seven farms in the neighborhood will also be buried to prevent any spread of the disease.
The ministry said that all movement of 3.57 million chickens and ducks being raised in 265 farms within a 10-km radius will be halted for the time being.
Quarantine authorities said that eggs from the farm will be recalled and buried as an extra precaution.
There have been no cases of people getting sick from eggs.
The ministry said the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service will conduct a probe into why the outbreak occurred, while the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention will be placed on standby in case of human infection.
The owner of the farm reported the outbreak early this week after about 3,000 chickens at the farm start dying late last month.
The farm has 150,000 chickens that produce 100,000 eggs per day and the eggs are sold nationwide, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
The latest outbreak of virulent strain of the bird flu disease in South Korea was reported in March 2007.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza, Korea (Rep. of)
Information received on 04/04/2008 from Dr Chang-Seob Kim, Director, Animal Health Division, Livestock Bureau , Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Gwacheon-city, Korea (Rep. of)
Summary
Report type Follow-up report No. 1
Start date 01/04/2008
Date of first confirmation of the event 03/04/2008
Report date 04/04/2008
Date submitted to OIE 04/04/2008
Reason for notification Reoccurrence of a listed disease
Date of previous occurrence 06/2007
Causal agent Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
Serotype H5N1
Nature of diagnosis Laboratory (basic), Laboratory (advanced)
This event pertains to a defined zone within the country
Outbreaks There are no new outbreaks in this report
EpidemiologySource of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection Unknown or inconclusive
Epidemiological comments The avian influenza suspected case reported to the OIE on 2 April was confirmed as highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N1 by the final diagnostic test (RT-PCR).
The chickens reared in the affected farm as well as in the 500-metres-radius zone around it will be culled, and the potentially contaminated stuff, such as eggs, kept in farms in the zone will be destroyed.
Additionally, movement restrictions are applied on the chicken/duck raising farms in the 10-km-radius zone around the affected farm and control measures including disinfection will be intensified in poultry farms across the country.
The central epidemiological investigating team was dispatched into the zone and has been conducting the investigation.
Control measuresMeasures applied Stamping out
Quarantine
Movement control inside the country
Screening
Zoning
Vaccination prohibited
No treatment of affected animals
Measures to be applied Disinfection of infected premises/establishment(s)
SEOUL: South Korea has started culling thousands of chickens after an outbreak of bird flu was confirmed to be the deadly H5N1 strain, officials said on Friday.
To determine the origin of the virus, officials were taking blood samples from the chickens, migratory birds and foreign workers at the infected farm in Gimje, 260 kilometres (162 miles) south of Seoul.
Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong suspended imports of uncooked chicken from South Korea but exports of cooked birds will not be affected, the agriculture ministry said.
The ministry said 270,000 chickens at five farms, the affected one and four others within a 500 metre radius, will be culled and buried along with all eggs in the area.
"The culling of chickens is underway," Kim Chang-Seob, chief veterinary officer of the ministry, told AFP.
The ministry has also imposed restrictions on the movement of chickens and ducks within a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius.
Kim noted that all outbreaks in the past occurred in the winter months from November to March but the current case erupted in early spring.
This makes health authorities suspect the virus might have been transmitted either by migrating birds or foreign workers who recently came from Mongolia, Vietnam and China where avian flu outbreaks have been reported, he said.
"The infected farm hires 11 foreign workers who came from Mongolia, Vietnam and China...we are taking their blood samples," Kim said.
About 2,400 chickens out of about 150,000 birds on the farm died between Saturday and Tuesday. The owner began reporting the deaths to health authorities on Monday.
Authorities immediately sealed off the location and barred any shipment of chickens or eggs to and from the farm, as well as to 12 other nearby farms.
The last time a virulent strain was reported in South Korea was in March 2007.
South Korea reported seven cases of infection by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu between November 2006 and March last year, resulting in the temporary suspension of poultry exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere.
But last June the World Organisation for Animal Health classified the country free from the disease.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 230 people worldwide since late 2003. No South Koreans have contracted the disease.
Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people and spark a deadly global pandemic.
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S. Korea slaughters chickens after bird flu outbreakUpdated Fri. Apr. 4 2008 6:56 AM ET
The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea -- Quarantine workers have destroyed more than 100,000 chickens in South Korea following the first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in the country in more than a year, an official said Friday.
The Agriculture Ministry plans to speed up the operation to complete the slaughter of some 308,000 chickens near the outbreak site as soon as possible, said ministry official Kim Chang-sup.
The outbreak in Gimje, 257 kilometres south of Seoul, was the first bird flu case involving the lethal H5N1 strain in South Korea since March last year.
Authorities have also banned any unauthorized movement of about 3.6 million poultry on 265 farms within ten kilometres of the outbreak site as a precaution until those birds can be tested for the virus, Kim said.
Seven outbreaks of the deadly virus hit poultry farms across South Korea between November 2006 and March 2007, resulting in the slaughter of about 2.8 million birds.
South Korea declared itself free of bird flu in June last year after reporting no new outbreaks for three months.
At least 238 people worldwide have died from bird flu since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected poultry.
Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, but health experts worry the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, possibly triggering a pandemic.
3 Generators may just be enough, now if I only had gas...Life would be good.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=515 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=txt-newsblue20-b>No Bird Flu Case in Humans </TD></TR><TR><TD height=5></TD></TR><TR><TD class=txtblue11>2008-04-04 16:14:30 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=10></TD></TR><TR><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"> A state disease control center says no human infections are suspected after an outbreak of bird flu in Gimje, North Jeolla Province.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said Friday that it interviewed and took blood samples from 15 people working at the poultry farm where the bird flu was detected. The center said no one had fever or coughs, or other symptoms of infection.
The KCDC has also taken preventive measures by providing anti-viral drugs and masks for about 260 people including quarantine officials and others who live near the farm. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE class=text cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=634 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=td_font_title05 width=627 bgColor=#ededed>Government probing bird flu outbreak</TD></TR><TR><TD width=7 bgColor=#ededed height=10></TD><TD width=627 bgColor=#ededed height=10></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2 height=20></TD></TR><TR><TD width=7></TD><TD class=td_font_no id=font_kh width=627><!-- // =================== ???? ???? ?αм??ڵ? ==================================// --><!--<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <!-- <td></td> <td></td> </tr></table>--><!-- // ================================================== =================================// --><SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://khview.koreaherald.co.kr/khjs/kherald/banner.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>The government said that it is trying to determine the cause of an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwest coast of the country.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said blood samples of the infected birds from the farm, located 260 kilometers south of Seoul, and those from 11 foreign workers from China, Vietnam and Mongolia have been taken for analysis. It said quarantine officials are also collecting blood samples from migratory birds at a nearby river where a duck was found to be carrying an anti-body to the H5N1 virus late last year.
"The test will help determine the exact sub-type of the H5N1 virus that killed off the chickens at the farm," said Kim Chang-seob, the ministry's chief veterinary officer.
He said quarantine officials who took part in the culling of the birds at the Gimje farm will also be tested to make certain they were not inadvertently affected.
"At present, it is impossible to say how the birds were infected," the expert said. He added that it may take a few days to know the exact sub-strain of the latest avian influenza outbreak.
In the 2003-2004 and 2006-2007 outbreaks the H5N1 viruses were determined to have been the northern strain. Most of the human deaths that occurred were linked to another virulent strain that broke out in Southeast Asia.<!-- www.koreaherald.co.kr -->
<TABLE id=tbl_article cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 20px"><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Avian flu strain has the potential to infect humans
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Ministry confirms the outbreak, but Koreans have never been infected
April 05, 2008
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=actxt id=articleBody style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 18px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 20px; LINE-HEIGHT: 27px; PADDING-TOP: 0px"><TABLE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=10 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=15></TD><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD width=18></TD><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Quarantine officials in protective suits pull chickens out of cages at a poultry farm in Gimje, North Jeolla yesterday to slaughter them to try to contain the outbreak of avian influenza. The farm in the photo is located within 3 kilometers of the site of the initial outbreak, reported Tuesday. [NEWSIS]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Confirming the outbreak of a deadly bird flu with the potential to infect humans, the government yesterday began destroying more than 300,000 chickens inside a quarantined zone in Gimje, North Jeolla.
The case, first reported Tuesday at a poultry farm in Gimje, was caused by the highly contagious strain of the virus called H5N1, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry.
The ministry said 308,000 chickens at the site of the outbreak and at six farms located within a 500-meter (1,640-feet) radius of it will be slaughtered as soon as possible.
The first H5N1 outbreak occurred in Korea in 2003 and there has never been a human infection here. None were reported yesterday, either, an agricultural ministry in charge of the disinfection said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The virus has killed 207 people in 12 other countries since November 2007, according to World Health Organization data.
??The reported 360 human infections happened in countries where the levels of disinfection and quarantining are poor,?? the official said. ??We are successfully isolating the virus.??
An anti-virus was given to 500 workers who are destroying the birds and disinfecting the farms. Health Minister Kim Soung-yee visited the site of the outbreak yesterday to check on the prevention of human infections.
The last time the H5N1 strain hit Korea was in 2006, about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from the site of the most recent outbreak.
At that farm, four excavators dug a hole yesterday to bury the slaughtered chickens.
The owner of the farm, who asked to be identified only as Mr. Yu, said 2,300 chickens there have died in the past week. The 150,000 chickens at Yu??s farm were ordered to be slaughtered as soon as possible as a preventative measure.
Disinfection and preparations for chicken culling also continued in the nearby village of Sinam.
??I raised my 40,000 chickens, treating them as if they were my own children,?? a farmer who declined to be identified said with a sigh. ??I can??t believe I just have to bury them.??
North Jeolla said its 500 workers will finish the slaughter by today.
Eggs produced at farms located within 3 kilometers of the site of the outbreak will be destroyed as a part of the containment efforts, the ministry said.
In addition, none of the 3.57 million birds in the 265 farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the farm will be allowed to leave the area, at least temporarily.
The ministry also warned poultry farms nationwide to heighten their disinfecting operations. Checkpoints were set up on roads linking North Jeolla to other provinces.
Jeju??s provincial government said poultry shipments from the mainland had been banned as of yesterday. South Chungcheong, where poultry farms have suffered 12 billion won ($12.3 million) in damages from bird flu outbreaks since 2006, began an emergency preventive plan to heighten disinfection inside the province.
The outbreak also affected the stock market. The price of Harim, the nation??s largest poultry supplier, fell 1.2 percent, closing at 2,065 won, while the share price of fishery suppliers and vaccine makers increased.
By Ser Myo-ja Staff Reporter [myoja@joongang.co.kr]
Outbreak of AI May Seriously Affects Korean Chicken Industry
APRIL 05, 2008 04:03
An outbreak of avian influenza (AI) in Gimje, North Jeolla Province has blocked Korean farms from exporting raw chicken.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Friday, ?Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, three major importers of Korean chicken and Korean style chicken soup, Samgyetang, informed us that they would continue to import Samgyetang but stop importing raw chicken.?
The Korean chicken export ban comes after eight months when Korea regained AI-free status last June. A country can regain AI-free status if the disease does not break out for more than three months after chicken cull.
Expecting huge potential damage to farmers, the Korean government has already decided to hand out half of the compensation for the culled chicken.
?I directed the payment for 50 percent of the average chicken price to farmers as soon as the affected regions end their cull,? said Kim Chang-seop, team director for animal disease prevention under the ministry. ?Around 70 billion won is available for culling and I allocated 10 billion won to North Jeolla Province.?
Once the precise figure comes up as the region is disinfected, the ministry will pay the rest of the compensation accordingly. The ministry estimates some 4.8 billion won is required for the scheduled culling of chicken and disposing of eggs.
The ministry first announced that 308,000 chickens would be slaughtered, but revised the number to 270,000 given the geography and organization.
As for the transmission path, the ministry said, ?We are investigating possibilities that transmission came from migratory birds or workers from Southeast Asia.?
?Eleven foreign workers from Mongolia, Vietnam and China were working on the farm where the latest outbreak of AI occurred. As foreign workers often meet other workers from their homeland, we are looking into whether any of them were infected with the virus through a serum test,? said Kim.
Chicken processing firms are nervous as well.
Kim Dae-shik, public relations chief of Harim, a chicken-processing company, said, ?The farm where AI broke out is a farm for eggs, not chicken. But just in case, we stood up an emergency center and passed on safety guidelines for farms that provide us with chicken.?
The South Korean government said Friday that it is trying to determine the cause of an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwest coast of the country.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said blood samples of the infected birds from the farm, located 260 kilometers south of Seoul, and those from 11 foreign workers from China, Vietnam and Mongolia have been taken for analysis. It said quarantine officials are also collecting blood samples from migratory birds at a nearby river, where a duck was found to be carrying an anti-body to the H5N1 virus late last year.
"The test will help determine the exact sub-type of the H5N1 virus that killed the chickens at the egg-laying farm," said Kim Chang-seob, the ministry's chief veterinary officer.
He said quarantine officials who took part in culling birds at the Gimje farm will also be tested to make certain they were not inadvertently affected.
"At present, it is impossible to say how the birds were infected," the expert said. He added that it may take a few days to know the exact sub-strain of the latest avian influenza outbreak.
In the 2003-2004 and 2006-2007 outbreaks, the H5N1 viruses were determined to have been the northern strain. Most of the human deaths that occurred were linked to another virulent strain that broke out in Southeast Asia.
All outbreaks in the past occurred in the winter months, from November to March.
Kim said that Seoul has already reported the outbreak to the World Organization for Animal Health.
"We expect that chicken meat sales will be halted, but have received notice that countries like Taiwan and Japan will not ban the import of canned chicken with ginseng soup," the official said.
The quarantine official, meanwhile, said that 151,000 chickens raised on the farm were in the process of being culled and buried to prevent secondary infections.
In addition, he said 270,000 birds within a 500-meter radius of the farm will be destroyed, along with the eggs produced.
The government expects to pay compensation totaling 4.8 billion won (US$4.92 million) for the birds and eggs destroyed.
"Compared to the past, the quick reporting by the owner of the farm has probably helped prevent the spread of the virus, which is usually transmitted by people and vehicles," Kim said. A small number of birds started dying from March 29, with the report being made on April 1 after large numbers of birds started to die.
He said a quarantine line with a 10-kilometer radius has been set up around the farm, with all movement of chickens, ducks and eggs banned for the time being.
"If there are any signs of the bird flu spreading beyond the first perimeter, authorities will immediately take steps to cull more birds," he said.
The ministry, meanwhile, said it is in the process of determining the cause of the sudden deaths of birds at a duck farm in Jeongeup, south of Gimje in North Jeolla Province.
Of the 10,000 ducks on the farm, half have died since Monday, with quarantine official conducting tests on the dead birds.
It said preliminary examinations indicated that the animals died from a "common" virus that affects ducks, but that is not a form of the deadly bird influenza. However, it will take a few days to confirm the exact cause of the deaths. SEOUL, April 4 (Yonhap)
혻 혻 SEOUL, April 5 (Yonhap) -- A case of bird flu has been discovered at a duck farm in southwestern South Korea, just three days after an outbreak was confirmed at a chicken farm in the same region, the government said Saturday.
혻 혻 The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said preliminary tests conducted on ducks that died earlier in the week at the farm in Jeongeup, about 250 kilometers southwest of Seoul, turned up positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus.
혻혻 Of the 10,000 ducks on the farm, half have died since Monday.The farm is located 27 kilometers away from a chicken farm that was hit by avian influenza earlier this week.
혻혻 The ministry said that further tests will be needed to determine if the virus is a low or high virulent strain of bird flu.
혻 혻 The quarantine official said that the remaining ducks raised on the farm were in the process of being culled and buried, with all poultry livestock within a 10 kilometer radius of the farm restricted from being transported.
혻혻 The last time a virulent strain of the bird flu was reported in the country was in March 2007. There have been several cases of mild strains discovered in the past few months.
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top height=60> </TD><TD class=update vAlign=top height=60><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=138 bgColor=#f6f6f6>Photos </TD><TD width=47 bgColor=#f6f6f6>1 of 1</TD><TD width=18 bgColor=#f6f6f6><INPUT id=btnPrev disabled onclick=Prev(); type=image height=15 width=18 src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_previous.gif" value="<< Previous"></TD><TD width=19 bgColor=#f6f6f6><INPUT id=bntPlay onclick=Play() type=image height=15 width=19 src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_stop.gif" value="Play - Stop"></TD><TD width=18 bgColor=#f6f6f6><INPUT id=btnNext disabled onclick=Next(); type=image height=15 width=18 src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_next.gif" value=" Next >> "></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
A state disease control center says no human infections are suspected after an outbreak of bird flu in Gimje, North Jeolla Province. 
</td> <td>
</TD></TR><TR><TD width=18></TD><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px">Quarantine officials in protective suits pull chickens out of cages at a poultry farm in Gimje, North Jeolla yesterday to slaughter them to try to contain the outbreak of avian influenza. The farm in the photo is located within 3 kilometers of the site of the initial outbreak, reported Tuesday. [NEWSIS]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Confirming the outbreak of a deadly bird flu with the potential to infect humans, the government yesterday began destroying more than 300,000 chickens inside a quarantined zone in Gimje, North Jeolla. 
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