Posted on 11/27/2006 5:31:48 AM PST by Mother Abigail
Yup. They did up my yard here in Mobile too.
More ping...
Unngh.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/11/27/afx3205166.html
Authorities have confirmed that another bird flu outbreak in Iksan reported on Monday is of a virulent strain.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said Tuesday some 200 of 12,000 chickens found dead on Sunday and Monday at a farm 3.5 km away from the initially infected area were killed by a highly virulent strain. Tests by the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service confirmed that the additional case is of highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza. The ministry has decided to cull all chickens and ducks raised in a 500-m radius from the newly affected farm. It will decide in a meeting on Wednesday whether to cull all poultry in a 3-km radius of the first and second infected farms.
Chang-seob, the chief veterinary officer at the ministry, said the bird flu virus was presumed to have been spread by vehicles using the 23rd Road, the preferred route of farmers in the region. The road links the first and second infected farms. The fresh outbreak gives rise to concerns that the virulent strain may spread further afield. Kim said that so far it cannot be said that avian influenza is spreading since the second case was reported within a 10-km radius of the first. Inspectors are testing other farms for the virus, he added.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200611/200611290018.html
By Dune Lawrence
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- China banned the import of poultry from South Korea in six provinces to prevent an outbreak of bird flu from spreading across its borders.
Agriculture and quarantine officials were ordered to increase scrutiny of cross-border cargo in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang provinces, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement posted on its Web site.
South Korea has reported two outbreaks of avian influenza since Nov. 25, the first in three years, fueling concern that the virus may spread through North Asia after renewed outbreaks in Southeast Asia last summer.
Government departments should ``step up preventive measures against the H5N1 avian influenza virus, including stopping imports of poultry products,'' China's agriculture ministry said in imposing the poultry ban on provinces closest to South Korea.
Disease trackers are monitoring the H5N1 bird-flu strain, which threatens to mutate into a form that's easily spread among humans. It has infected at least 258 people in 10 countries during the past three years, killing 153 of them, the World Health Organization said Nov. 13. No human H5N1 cases have been reported in South Korea, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
Bird flu yesterday killed about 200 chickens at a farm in South Korea's southwestern city of Iksan, about 3 kilometers from a farm where an H5N1 outbreak was confirmed on Nov. 25, according to Kim Yang Ii, a South Korean agriculture ministry spokesman.
China Outbreaks
The infections are the first in South Korea since an initial H5N1 outbreak in December 2003. That outbreak prompted the slaughter within four months of about 5.3 million poultry, worth 150 billion won ($161 million).
China has had 10 bird-flu outbreaks in poultry this year in seven provinces, with 47,000 fowl dying from the disease and 2.94 million birds culled, China's Chief Veterinary Officer Jia Youling said Nov. 11.
Samples from wild birds in Liaoning, as well as Qinghai and Tibet, have tested positive for the virus. Liaoning reported at least four outbreaks of avian flu a year ago.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said in August that a variant of the H5N1 strain found in southern China caused fresh outbreaks in poultry in Thailand and Laos in July, suggesting the virus was re-introduced through trade.
China has rejected blame for new outbreaks in Southeast Asia.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dune Lawrence in Beijing at dlawrence6@bloomberg.net
S Korean soldiers guard bird flu zones amid cull
by Park Chan-Kyong Fri Dec 1, 4:41 AM ET
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean soldiers have guarded quarantine zones around two poultry farms hit by bird flu, as officials started slaughtering hundreds of thousands of birds in an expanded cull.
A total of 236 soldiers wearing protective suits and goggles were deployed at 17 checkpoints near the farms on the outskirts of the southern city of Iksan, the first time the military has been called in to help in the crisis.
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"All the solders have had vaccine injections and swallowed Tamiflu," it said, referring to an oral anti-viral drug used for treating influenza.
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South Korea was the first country to report avian flu when the latest outbreaks, the largest and most severe on record, began in Asia in mid-2003.
From December 2003 to March 2004, 5.3 million ducks and chickens were destroyed at a cost of 150 billion won (now 160 million US dollars). In December last year the nation had declared itself free of the virus.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061201/hl_afp/healthfluskorea
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