Bird flu spreads to most of South Korea
Straits Times 10 May 08;
SEOUL - BIRD flu outbreaks have spread to most of South Korea despite the massive culling of chickens and ducks across the country, the Agriculture Ministry said yesterday.
The latest outbreak reported last weekend in the eastern city of Chuncheon is now confirmed to have been caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, the ministry said.
It has brought to 35 the total number of bird flu cases in South Korea. The avian plague has spread as far north as Seoul and to the south- eastern cities of Ulsan and Daegu.
The ministry also said two suspected cases had been reported in the south-eastern city of Busan, the country's largest port.
More than 6.7 million chickens and ducks have been slaughtered since the latest chain of outbreaks began in April 1 in Gimje City, North Jeolla Province, about 260km south of Seoul. The previous chain was between November 2006 and March last year.
South Korea has not recorded any human cases of bird flu. A soldier taken to hospital last month was found not to have the disease.
'The soldier, who was quarantined after showing symptoms of bird flu, has tested negative. We have determined his condition was caused by bacterial pneumonia,' the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release.
The soldier, 21, had been taking part in the culling of more than five million birds.
The Agriculture Ministry said the quarantine authorities were continuing to decontaminate all aviaries and poultry farms in Seoul and public access to those areas had been limited.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
New outbreak of bird flu hits India
Channel NewsAsia 10 May 08;
KOLKATA: Bird flu has spread to the hilly Darjeeling district of eastern India which has been hit by avian influenza several times already this year, a minister said Saturday.
Blood samples from dead chickens from the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal state tested positive for the H5N1 strain, the state's animal resources development minister Anisur Rahaman said.
A mass cull of some 20,000 chickens would begin soon, he added.
West Bengal borders Bangladesh, where the virus has been detected in poultry in more than half of the country's 64 districts.
The disease was first detected in Bangladesh in February 2007 near the capital Dhaka. It was almost dormant by late 2007 but made a forceful comeback in January this year.
West Bengal reported the first outbreak of the virus in January, when health workers culled 3.8 million chickens.
The state reported two more outbreaks in March, leading to the culling of tens of thousands of chickens.
So far, no human cases have been reported in India.
Humans typically catch bird flu by coming into direct contact with infected poultry, but experts fear the H5N1 strain may mutate into a form easily transmissible between people and lead to a pandemic.
A pandemic could affect up to one-fifth of the global population and according to the World Bank, cost up to two trillion US dollars. - AFP/ac
