SEOUL — South Korea has confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian flu virus at a duck farm in the country’s southwest, triggering Monday a 48-hour nationwide ban on the movement of poultry.
The farm ministry’s ban to combat the virus outbreak also extends to poultry farm vehicles and workers, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Kim Yung Rok said.
“The highest-level preventive measures have been taken against all poultry farms and other related facilities nationwide,” Kim told reporters.
Some 12,300 ducks at the farm in Gochang, some 300 kilometers southwest of Seoul, have been culled after the outbreak of the H5N6 avian influenza strain was detected Sunday. It is reportedly the nation’s first bird flu outbreak this winter.
South Korea experienced its worst avian flu outbreak between last November and this March, with millions of chickens and ducks culled to contain the spread.
==Kyodo
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