# 8452
Although we occasionally get hints of outbreaks of bird flu, or FMD, in North Korea, very rarely do we details out of that closed and secretive nation. Given the amount of bird flu activity (H5N1 & H5N8) we’ve seen reported out of South Korea over the past decade, the assumption has been that unreported bird flu outbreaks probably occur with some regularity in the DPRK as well.
This morning Yonhap News, Xinhua News, and others are reporting on a major outbreak of H5N1 in North Korea, along with reports of FMD, which have been ongoing for several weeks.
While this would be a concern in any part of the world, the culling of thousands of birds is a particular concern to a nation where widespread hunger is all too often a reality. Here is the Xinhua News Report.
DPRK hit by outbreak of bird flu, FMD
English.news.cn 2014-04-09 16:48:27
PYONGYANG, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been fighting an outbreak of bird flu since last month, culling tens of thousands of poultry so far, official news agency KCNA reported Wednesday.
A chicken farm in the capital first reported signs of avian influenza (AI), known as the H5N1 virus, on March 21, and the virus has spread to other poultry farms, KCNA reported, citing Agriculture Ministry director Ri Kyung Kun.
"(We) are suffering from extensive economic damage as tens of thousands (of poultry) have either fallen dead or been culled," the report said.
As part of efforts to control the highly contagious virus, the DPRK authorities "set up an emergency quarantine commission and declared an emergency prevention situation across the nation," it said.
"(The government) has controlled the traffic, come up with quarantine measures and buried the culled. But the disease shows no sign of dying down and continues to spread," the KCNA said. The country was hard hit by AI last year.
The KCNA also confirmed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cows, which was first spotted in Kangwon Province near the border on March 14, but gave no details.
In February, the DPRK said an FMD outbreak at a pig farm in a Pyongyang suburb led to the culling of thousands of pigs.
In May of 2013 the DPRK informed the OIE of an outbreak of H5N1 near Pyongyang, followed two weeks later with a report indicating the outbreak had been limited and was `resolved’. Prior to that outbreak, you have to go back to 2006 to find an official report filed on H5N1 out of North Korea.
Today’s reporting states `The country was hard hit by AI last year’, which would suggest a larger outbreak than had been previously acknowledged.
Although today’s media report indicates this outbreak has been ongoing for several weeks, to date I can find no reports filed with the OIE or the FAO.
In the past South Korea has provided emergency aid and assistance to the North during bird flu containment operations, seeing it as not only a humanitarian response, but also one that helps protect their nation and the world from the further spread and evolution of the virus.
With tensions mounting between North & South Korea, and between the DPRK and much of the rest of the world, it is unclear how much aid would be offered – or for that matter, accepted – in this current outbreak.
