South Korea to raise bird flu alert to maximum from June 6 according to : Reuters

This is only the second time that South Korea - Asia's fourth biggest economy - has raised the country's bird flu alert level to maximum. South Korean health officials carry dead chickens at a poultry farm where a birdflu virus broke out in Ulsan, South Korea, June 5, 2017. South Korea has culled nearly 38 million farm birds since November, more than a fifth of its total poultry population. The latest move to raise the alert follows Saturday's discovery of avian flu in a backyard flock of farm birds on the southern island of Jeju, rekindling bird flu fears nationwide. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement it will take "all-out preventive measures" to curb a wider spread of the highly contagious bird flu virus.




Then in 2009, he lost more than half of his 60,000 chickens to bird flu and two other diseases. The bird flu viruses are notoriously unstable, he added. Tulus Riyadi Wardoyo, 60, has been a poultry trader since he was 16, and has never experienced or heard of bird flu cases in poultry or humans. NEW STRAINSExperts say there are more bird flu strains now, including H3N2, H5N1, H5N6, H5N8 and H7N9. The H5N1 virus mostly affects birds, but experts fear it could mutate and spread rapidly between people, triggering a pandemic that could possibly kill millions.

Fear grows on rapid spread of bird flu

The ministry vowed to investigate poultry farmers over their suspected failure to promptly report possible bird flu cases, fearing financial losses. Of them, 1,000 were sent to Jeju, 600 to Busan, 500 to Gyeonggi Province, and 450 to Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, all of which have confirmed bird flu cases. According to the municipal government, the farms were within 3 kilometers of three regions on the island that filed 59 reports about 301 chickens suspected of having bird flu, many of which tested positive for the virus. This comes only a day after the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs raised the bird flu alert level to the maximum and ordered a nationwide transport ban and pre-emptive disinfection for all poultry farms and their equipment. A record 37.8 million birds were culled from last November to that month, incurring 1 trillion won ($892 billion) in losses.


collected by :Lucy William
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