Huge poultry cull in South Korea

- Published: 27 November, 2006

More than 235,000 poultry were due to be slaughtered at the weekend by South Korean quarantine officials after an outbreak of the H5N1 form of bird flu at a chicken farm last week.

Reports state that the outbreak occurred at a farm in Iksan, about 155 miles south of Seoul.

The country's agriculture ministry said test results confirmed the outbreak was caused by a type of H5N1 virus and all birds within a 500-metre radius would be culled to prevent the virus from spreading.

Limitations are to be implemented on the movement of about 5m chickens and ducks from 221 farms within a six-mile radius of the outbreak.

Lee Sang-gil, head of the agriculture ministry's livestock bureau, said no people had been infected.

South Korea killed 5.3m birds during the last known outbreak of bird flu in 2003.