South Korea in huge poultry cull to halt bird flu

SEOUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) South Korea will cull over half a million fowl in a bid to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, having already killed 150,000 chickens near farms where the virus was found, officials said today.

Last week South Korea confirmed it had its first outbreak of the H5N1 strain in about three years, saying the strain had been found at two nearby poultry farms close in Iksan, about 170 km south of Seoul.

''We will expand the radius of areas for culling bird flu-infected poultry farms ... in order to make sure the outbreak does not spread,'' the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

The ministry decided not to include other animals in the cull, although it has already killed dogs and cats on the farms hit by the outbreak despite criticism from animal rights groups.

REUTERS SBA BST0806