# 2357
Today we have a brief report suggesting that bird flu may have `returned' to South Korea, in the form of infected ducks.
Tests are pending.
First the news story, then some discussion.
S.Korea reports new case of suspected bird flu
Sat Oct 4, 2008 7:46am BST
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Saturday reported a suspected bird flu outbreak at a duck farm in Yesan city, south of Seoul, the first since the latest confirmed case about five months ago, local media reported.
The suspected case is currently under tests, and the final results were due by the end of the day, Yonhap News said, citing Seoul's agriculture ministry.
Initial tests at the suspected farm, home to 5,000 ducks, had given positive readings for the avian virus, it said.
The government plans to slaughter all birds in the farm as a pre-emptive measure.
In May, South Korea culled all domestic fowl in the Seoul area in a bid to contain bird flu after confirming 31 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain in poultry in the preceding six weeks.
Starting on April 1st of this year, and for roughly the next seven weeks, South Korea waged its biggest battle to date against the bird flu virus, culling 8 million birds at dozens of infected farms around the nation.
The outbreak was declared over by the end of June, and South Korea announced they were Bird Flu Free on August 17th.
S Korea declares itself bird flu-free zone
www.chinaview.cn
2008-08-17 17:35:35
SEOUL, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government said Sunday that the country is a bird flu "clean zone" after three months without a confirmed case of the bird flu virus.
"Under OIE (the World Organization for Animal Health) rules, we can declare South Korea 'clean' three months after the last quarantine measures have been implemented," said Kim Chang-seob, the chief veterinary officer of South Korea's Agriculture Ministry.
South Korea technically became a bird flu free country as of Friday, Kim added.
Being `bird flu free' is quite often a temporary status.
This summer the South Korean government announced they would begin monitoring for the bird flu virus year-round, instead of just between November and March as they have in previous years.
Should this suspected outbreak in Yesan City turn out to be due to the bird flu virus, once again, this would be an `off-season' incident, raising concerns that somehow the virus has changed its modus operandi.
Exactly how and where the virus spends its summers hasn't been answered.
Does it lie quietly in some asymptomatic flock somewhere, waiting for cooler weather before spreading? Or does it hide in some mammalian reservoir that we aren't monitoring? Or perhaps it flies in each fall on the wings of migratory birds.
All we really know is that during the summer months, the virus generally declines in activity (sometimes disappears completely), and that it re-emerges during the fall and winter months.
Authorities are promising swift test results and so we should know today or tomorrow if this incident is due to the bird flu virus.
