# 1894
The situation in South Korea remains fluid, and the numbers we get via news reports of the number of farm testing positive for bird flu vary.
Officials are indicating that a full accounting probably won't be available until after the culling ends.
While bird flu (exact type unknown) reportedly has been detected at 25 farms, another 20 farms have reported suspicious bird deaths, according to Xinhua News on Saturday. Additionally, quarantine officials are slaughtering birds at 141 farms and restaurants visited by a dealer who removed hundreds of ducks from an infected farm in Gimje.
S. Korea culls five million poultry over bird flu
SEOUL - ALMOST five million poultry have been slaughtered in South Korea to contain the spread of bird flu since it hit the country earlier this month, the agriculture ministry said on Sunday.
The avian influenza has hit 25 farms with 4.85 million chickens and ducks culled since the first outbreak on April 1, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry statement on Sunday did not specify how many of the 25 outbreaks, though all involving the H5 virus, were of the 'deadly' H5N1 strain that sometimes claims human lives.
'We have not made a full count of H5N1 outbreaks yet, which should be released after putting this epidemic under control first,' Mr Kim Chang Sup, a director handling bird flu at the ministry, told AFP on Sunday.
'Simple test kits we use now in the field can verify if it is of avian influenza or not, but not of a sub-type. If we confirm outbreaks, our priority goes to culling, not testing.' But Mr Kim denied some news reports that 25 outbreaks were all of the H5N1 strain. Officials have privately confirmed at least seven H5N1 outbreaks.
