S. Korea confirms second highly pathogenic case of bird flu

South Korean officials said Tuesday they had discovered a second case of the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza (AI) on a poultry farm in the southern part of the country.

The confirmation came after the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said Saturday it had confirmed the country's first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain in three years on a poultry farm in Iksan, about 230 kilometers south of Seoul.

The latest case was found on a farm about 3 kilometers from the first outbreak site, the ministry said.

"Officials reported a suspected case of AI late Monday on the farm," said the ministry. "Test results showed the strain was highly pathogenic."

Quarantine officials were working to confirm if the latest outbreak was the H5N1 strain, which can be fatal to humans, it added.

The ministry said it will begin culling livestock within a 500-meter radius of the latest outbreak in an effort to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly disease. The measure of culling livestock may be extended to within a 3-km radius of both the first and second outbreak, a ministry official said.

For the source of the virus in the second case, officials suspected the farmhouse where the first outbreak occurred on Nov.

19, as the two farmhouses were supplied with chaff from the same mill. They said the virus seemed to have spread through chaff vehicles before last Wednesday, when the quarantine measure took effect.

In 2003 and 2004, South Korea destroyed 5.3 million poultry to prevent the spread of the disease. No human case of bird flu has been reported in the country.

A highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been cited by the World Health Organization for killing at least 148 people in 10 countries since late 2003. Of the 43 countries to have reported bird flu outbreaks, 28 have not yet fully contained it.

Seoul, Nov. 28 (Yonhap News)