S.Korea has 2ND highest bird flu alert.

S KOREA EXTENDS BIRD FLU RISK LEVEL TO SECOND HIGHEST NATIONWIDE
Tuesday, April 15, 2008; Posted: 11:14 PM < =1.2>

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function openprcharts(popurl){var winpops=window.open(popurl,"prchart","width=1000,height=800,status,scrollbars,resizable")} SEOUL, Apr 16, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- -- South Korea has extended its avian influenza risk level to the second highest nationwide amid rising concerns bird flu could spread across the country following a series of outbreaks this month, quarantine officials said Wednesday.

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The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries held a livestock quarantine meeting earlier in the day and decided to extend the risk level to "orange" nationwide.

This is the second highest risk level in South Korea's four-tier alert system -- blue, yellow, orange and red -- and it has been applied previously only to the Jeolla provinces where most cases of avian influenza have been reported.

The move comes as the government is intensifying its quarantine efforts to stem the further spread of bird flu after a suspicious outbreak was reported in Pyeongtaek, around 70 kilometers away from Seoul on Tuesday. The Pyeongtaek case is raising concerns that bird flu might be fast spreading nationwide.

As of Tuesday, the number of suspected or confirmed bird flu cases stood at 36, of which 20 were proved to have been linked to to the highly pathogenic virus, according to the ministry.

Following an outbreak in the winter of 2003, authorities culled around 5.6 million birds, while similar outbreaks in 2006 saw about 2.8 million birds destroyed.

(Yonhap)

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Bird Flu Alert Extended Nationwide

The bird flu outbreak reported in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Monday is of a highly pathogenic strain that can be transmitted to humans, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Wednesday. The Ministry decided to issue a nationwide ¡°orange¡± alert so far only in effect in the Jeolla provinces. National emergency management guidelines specify four levels of risk alert -- blue, yellow, orange and red, with red being the most serious. Under the orange warning, the ministry and local authorities can ask police and military assistance in isolating and destroying poultry infected with bird flu. When the red warning is issued, all human and material resources can be mobilized to fight off avian influenza at a national level. Since the first outbreak of bird flu was reported in the city of Gimje, North Jeolla Province, the number of highly pathogenic bird flu has risen to 21 as of Wednesday. However, quarantine authorities stress that the bird flu virus is killed when exposed to temperatures over 75 degrees in Celsius for more than five minutes. Poultry consumption is therefore unlikely to pose a health threat to humans. (englishnews@chosun.com

S.Korea upgrades alert

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea upgraded its bird flu alert to the second highest on Wednesday and sent in soldiers to help cull and bury birds amid the worst poultry influenza outbreak in four years.

In less than two weeks, South Korea has confirmed 11 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, which had been contained in the southwest of the country, some 200 miles south of Seoul.

And the Farm Ministry said on Wednesday an outbreak at a chicken farm in Pyeongtaek, just 60 km south of Seoul, had also been confirmed as H5N1, bringing the scare closer to the capital.

It also confirmed another case of the positive H5 strain in a farm in Sunchang county in North Jeolla province, raising fears that the virus is spreading fast and the country may see a repeat of late 2003 when it had to kill 5.3 million birds.

"We have culled around 2.3 million birds so far and the number will easily outgrow the 2006 level when we slaughtered 2.8 million," Kim Chang-seop, a ministry official in charge of livestock quarantine, told reporters.

Korea is investigating possible causes of the spread such as migrating birds and transport workers who have been moving around the affected sites and other parts of the country.

The Farm Ministry also said it would beef up quarantine work and extend its regular tests on poultry -- normally carried out during the most susceptible November and February period -- to all year round.

It also raised the risk level for bird flu, extending coverage nationwide from the southwest, while some 200 soldiers were deployed to help slaughter and bury poultry, the government said.

The latest outbreak appears to have had a limited impact on poultry consumption so far, as the country had a number of similar outbreaks in the past with no reports of human deaths.

South Korea had seven outbreaks of H5N1 between November 2006 and March 2007.

"We are having a bird flu case almost every year and it's become a sort of seasonal event and as a result people are now more used to it," said Choi Ja-hyun, an analyst at Hyundai Securities.

"Demand for poultry products will be affected but it is unlikely to have any huge impact on the industry," she said.

Chicken sales at four major retailers surveyed by the ministry showed a 58 percent decline in the first two weeks of April, but egg sales rose 14 percent.

The outbreak, however, has caused a fall in poultry prices of up to 11 percent this month, posing a bigger threat to farmers already struggling with high animal feed costs.

There are many types of avian flu viruses and experts are more worried about the H5 and H7 subtypes, which they think have a higher potential to mutate into forms that could pass easily between people and cause a human pandemic.

There had been 240 human deaths globally from the H5N1 strain and 380 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to World Health Organization data.

($1=979.3 won)

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