Tuesday, January 11, 2011

South Korea Intensifies Bird Flu Response

 


# 5220

 

 

This morning reports continue to appear indicating that the spread of bird flu in poultry (and FMD in livestock) in South Korea shows no signs of abating.

 

AFP (Agence France-Presse) reports that the South Korean government raised their bird flu alert to its second highest level on Tuesday after the virus was found to have spread to 4 provinces, in 16 separate detections.

 

Under this new alert level, all birds within a 3 KM radius of an outbreak will be culled.  Previously, that `culling zone’ was 500 meters.

 

A sampling of earlier blogs on this escalating outbreak include:

 

S. Korea: Bird Flu Moves North
South Korea Battles Bird Flu, FMD
S. Korea: 3rd Poultry Farm Positive For Bird Flu

 

Two news stories this morning. From the Straits Times:

 

Jan 11, 2011
S. Korea raises alert against bird flu - AFP

 

And from the Korea Times:

 

01-11-2011 20:55
Bird flu, FMD spreading faster, farther

By Kim Rahn


Bird flu is spreading northward to Seoul and metropolitan areas from central parts of the country.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), in the meantime, has affected nearly all parts of the country, threatening the southernmost regions the most.

(Continue . . . )