Second confirmed bird flu outbreak
A second outbreak of bird flu has been detected in Seosan, about 140 kilometers north of Iksan where the fatal H5N1 led to a massive culling of poultry and other animals.
Provincial officials said the sick chickens were hatched from eggs distributed in mid-November from a breeding farm in Iksan, North Jeolla Province. But the authorities have not yet confirmed whether the Seosan chickens were infected with the highly virulent strain.
¡°Preliminary tests indicate the virus of being a harmless strain,¡± the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said in a statement.
To prevent the spread of the virus, quarantine officials have so far destroyed about 100,000 chickens and ducks within a 500-meter radius of Iksan, which is about 250 kilometer south of Seoul. Officials confirmed the H5N1 virus in the Iksan poultry on Saturday.
The ministry said the government plans to cull a total of 236,000 birds, in addition to other animals such as pigs, dogs and cats in the area by Thursday.
About six million eggs will also be destroyed.
Seosan officials said they are waiting for the preliminary test results of chickens from eight farms in the area. They said measures have been put in place to contain the transfer of livestock. Five of the farms have bought livestock from breeding farms in Iksan, the authorities said.
The latest bird flu case in Seosan is expected to unnerve poultry-related industries. Since news of the first outbreak on Nov. 22 major retailers have been seeing chicken sales decline.
Lotte Mart said sales dropped 15 percent between Friday and Sunday compared to a year ago. Samsung Tesco¡¯s Homeplus says sales have dropped 20 percent during the same period.
Demand for poultry at E-Mart, the nation¡¯s largest discount store chain, has also been declining compared to a year ago, however, at a slower pace.
¡°Sales have climbed 55 percent from Thursday to Saturday compared to a year ago, but the growth rate is slowing down,¡± said Park Soo-beom, a spokesman for Shinsegae Co.¡¯s E-Mart. ¡°We expect sales to slow further if there continues to be reports of the bird flu spreading because consumers would feel more uneasy,¡± he added.
Hallim Co., the nation¡¯s No. 1 supplier of chicken and poultry products, suffered a 30 percent drop in sales from Thursday to Monday. Hallim commands about 25 percent of the nation¡¯s chicken manufacturing market.
¡°The sales decline is slower compared to the first scare the nation experienced in 2003,¡± said Kim Dae-sik, the spokesman for Hallim. ¡°But we attribute this slower pace to consumers¡¯ wider awareness of the avian influenza and how consuming chicken, if well cooked, is not harmful to humans.¡±
Experts assure the public that poultry is safe to consume when it is cooked at temperatures above 75 degrees Celsius for more than five minutes.
Korea reported its first outbreak of H5N1 in December 2003. About 5.3 million chickens and ducks valued at 150 billion won ($161 million) were slaughtered within four months.
The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 258 people in 10 countries over the past three years, killing 153 of them, according to the Geneva-based World Health Organization.
Seventy-five deaths have been recorded by the WHO this year.
This is more than the United Nations agency counted in the previous two years combined.
So far, Korea has reported no human H5N1 cases, according to the WHO.
Scarey !