South Korea Finds Suspected Milder Bird Flu Among Ducks
Date: 23-Dec-04
Country: SOUTH KOREA
Preliminary results of tests conducted at duck farms earlier in the day found a suspected outbreak of the H5N2 strain of avian flu, a statement from the Agriculture Ministry said. Final results would be available on Thursday, it added.
The ministry said it would slaughter all 9,000 ducks at the hatchery in Kwangju, some 250 km (155 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul, and would examine neighbouring duck farms for signs of the virus.
"The virus type, identified as H5N2, is different from the highly contagious H5N1 type that hit South Korea and Southeast Asia last time," the ministry statement said.
"No ducks have died and they have not shown slower egg-laying rates," it added.
Milder forms of the avian flu virus have frequently been found in migratory birds in South Korea every year since 1996, although this was the first case found among ducks at a hatchery, the statement said.
South Korea confirmed 19 cases of the highly contagious H5N1 strain at poultry farms between December, 2003 and March this year.
The outbreaks resulted in a mass cull of poultry in an attempt to stop the virus spreading, hitting local chicken and duck restaurants and halting South Korea's modest poultry exports to Japan, Hong Kong and China.
Certain strains of bird flu can be lethal to humans, although no human case has ever been found in Korea. The virus has an incubation period of four to five days.
In Japan, five people might have been infected with the bird flu virus after an outbreak among chickens in February, the Japanese government said at the weekend, adding there was no risk they would develop symptoms and no chance of further infections.
All of the cases were identified as the H5N1 strain, the same strain that killed 16 people in Vietnam and eight in Thailand earlier this year.
