The South Korean government confirmed Saturday a new outbreak of H5N1 strain of bird flu, which becomes the 25th confirmed cases of the deadly epidemic in the country since late March.
According to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the new case of bird flu was reported on Thursday on a chicken farm in Jeongeup, North Jeolla province, and has been tested positive for the H5N1 virus. The farm is located 4 km away from the area where an outbreak of bird flu was confirmed earlier this month.
The ministry said it plans to limit the movement of poultry, people and cars to a 10-km radius of the area, while seeking to cull and bury 525,000 chickens and ducks raised within three kilometers of the affected farm.
As of Saturday morning, South Korea received reports of 46 suspected and confirmed outbreaks of bird flu, with 25 cases proven to be linked to the H5N1 strain of bird flu, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.
The South Korean government put the whole country on the second-highest avian influenza alert on Wednesday to prevent further spreading of bird flu.
Quarantine officials said they have culled 3.71 million birds so far since confirmation of this year's first bird flu case in early April.
The ministry estimated that the bird flu outbreak has caused around 30 billion won (30.1 million U.S. dollars) worth of losses.
The rapidly spreading bird flu caused diminishing demand for both chicken and duck meat, with some discount outlets reporting a14 percent drop in sales.
Source:Xinhua
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