SKorean PM calls for 'all-out fight' against bird flu

Updated April 17, 2008 22:21:58

South Korean quarantine officials march into a poultry farm south of Seoul to investigate a suspected outbreak of bird flu. [AFP]

South Korea's prime minister, Han Seung-Soo, has called for an all-out fight against bird flu as police prepare to join troops in quarantine and culling efforts.

The country has now reported 21 outbreaks since the first early this month, with almost three million poultry culled.

Police say they have put 130 officers on standby in the badly hit southwestern Jeolla provinces to help cull chickens and ducks.

The government has already deployed 200 troops in the region and readied firefighters to help fight the disease, with an alert extended to the whole country.

The agriculture ministry has confirmed the 21 outbreaks involve the H5 virus without specifying how many are of the deadly H5-N1 strain.

Culling

The ministry says a total of 2.9 million chickens and ducks have been culled in and around infected farms, mostly in the South and North Jeolla provinces, which are a hub of the poultry industry.

Authorities say a poultry dealer took hundreds of ducks from an infected farm at Gimje, where the first case was reported, and supplied them to retailers and restaurants in other regions.

Quarantine officials have been slaughtering poultry at more than 140 restaurants or farms visited by the dealer.

South Korea reported seven cases of H5N1 infection 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 as free from the disease.

The H5N1 strain has killed more than 230 people worldwide since late 2003.

No South Koreans have contracted the disease.