South Korea to tighten countermeasures to prevent bird flu outbreak

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South Korea will implement countermeasures to prevent local poultry farms from being affected by possible avian influenza viruses carried by migratory birds, Yonhap news agency quoted the government as saying Wednesday.

The country's quarantine authorities have stepped up an existing bird flu prevention campaign after officials captured a wild duck on the Mangyeong River that tested positive for a virulent H5N1 strain of the influenza virus.

Authorities, at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, however, said that the discovery of the wild duck did not mean South Korea was affected by the disease since no domestically raised ducks and chickens have been reported infected.

Exports of poultry will not be affected by the discovery and the country remains a "bird flu free" country, it stressed.

Bird flu is an air-borne disease that is usually transmitted between animals.

The disease can spread to humans, but no South Korean has gotten sick from exposure to the virus that killed several hundred people worldwide.

The agriculture ministry said chicken and duck producers in North Jeolla Province on the country's western coast have been told to install nets around their farms to keep away wild birds, and decontamination of people working at poultry farms have been beefed up.

The ministry said both farmers and quarantine officials will increase monitoring to check for sick birds that may have contracted the disease.

Seoul currently maintains year-round monitoring of all migratory birds that pass through the country and began capturing specimens from August 2008 onward to give advanced warnings to local farmers.

"Poultry farms within a 10-kilometre radius have been placed under close observation with people told to stay clear of bird sanctuaries," the ministry said.

It, however, said there were no farms within 500 meters of where the wild duck was captured.

The country was hit a total of three times by avian influenza, with the latest outbreak occurring in April of 2008 and resulting in a record 8.46 million birds being culled at a cost of around 264 billion won (US$230 million).

Previous outbreaks took place in the winter months of 2003-2004 and 2006-2007.

The farm ministry, meanwhile, said that all out efforts are being made to contain the foot-and-mouth (FMD) outbreak affecting the southeastern part of the country by swiftly culling animals and limiting movement of all cloven hoofed animals such as cattle and pigs.

Seoul said that it is in the process of culling 120,000 animals after 31 cases of the FMD were confirmed since Nov 29.

It added that tests conducted on animals in Goryeong County that showed FMD-like symptoms Tuesday revealed they were not sick.

If the animals were affected, it would have signified the spread of the disease across the entire province that would have further burdened the current quarantine activities.

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