S Korea finds suspected bird flu case at poultry farm

SEOUL, Nov 23 (Reuters) South Korea's agriculture ministry today said it had discovered a suspected case of bird flu at a poultry farm in the south west of the country, which could be the country's first outbreak in about three years.

The ministry will hold a briefing on the matter at 0740 hrs IST, a ministry official said by telephone.

The official said it would take about two days to confirm whether the poultry had been infected with bird flu.

Chickens at the poultry farm in North Cholla province showed signs of bird flu, the official said. He would not speculate as to whether it was the potentially deadly H5N1 strain or not.

About 400,000 poultry at South Korean farms were infected by bird flu between December 2003 and March 2004.

Subsequent testing in the United States indicated that at least South Korean nine workers involved in the mass culling of birds had been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus but none of them developed any major illnesses, South Korean health officials have said.

The World Health Organisation said that as of November 13, there have been 258 cases of human infection of the H5N1 strain from 2003, killing 153 people.

Reuters SBA VP0720