South Korea to Slaughter 236,000 Poultry

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean quarantine officials will slaughter 236,000 poultry after an outbreak of the virulent H5N1 form of bird flu at a chicken farm, the agriculture ministry said Saturday.

The outbreak occurred at a farm in Iksan, about 155 miles south of Seoul, earlier this week, resulting in the deaths of 13,000 chickens — 6,700 a direct result of infection and the rest culled.

Test results confirmed the outbreak was caused by a "highly pathogenic" type of H5N1 virus, the ministry said in a statement.

It said 236,000 poultry within a 1,650-foot radius of the outbreak site would be slaughtered to keep the virus from spreading.

The ministry also said it would limit the movement of about 5 million chickens and ducks from 221 farms within a 1.6 mile radius of the outbreak.

Park Yong-jong, a city official in Iksan, said the culls would begin Sunday morning. The "highly pathogenic" type of H5N1 can be lethal to poultry but poses little risk to people, said Kwon Jun-wook, an official at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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