hankyoreh

The deaths of a huge number of chickens in Seosan of South Choongcheong Province last week was not related to the deadly bird flu virus, South Korea's Agriculture Ministry said Monday.

Chicken farm operators at Seosan, just north of the site of a bird flu outbreak in Iksan, 230 kilometers south of Seoul, have formally requested an investigation by the state veterinary service after more than 1,000 chickens died since Nov. 20 without a clear reason.

"After a close investigation, it has been confirmed that the deaths were unrelated to avian influenza virus," a ministry official said.

"The service needs more investigation, but the deaths are highly likely to have been caused by common poultry infections."

The Agriculture Ministry has been on high alert since Saturday, when it was reported that a highly virulent strain of bird flu virus caused a huge number of chickens to die in Iksan. Since Saturday, the ministry has culled nearly 100,000 chickens, pigs, cats and hatchery eggs in the areas near the outbreak site.

A strain of a highly pathogenic strain of the bird flu virus has been cited by the World Health Organization for the deaths of at least 148 people in 10 countries since late 2003. Of the 43 countries to have reported bird flu outbreaks, 28 have not yet fully contained it.

In 2003 and 2004, South Korea destroyed 5.3 million poultry at a cost of about 1.5 billion won (US$1.6 million) to prevent the spread of the disease. No South Koreans have fallen ill from bird flu.
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Yonhap News)