South Korea Reports Another Outbreak of Bird Flu at Poultry Farm

韩国报告家禽饲养场又爆禽流感疫情

South Korea has reported a third outbreak of bird flu at a quail farm south of the capital, Seoul.

The Agriculture Ministry said today (Monday) about one thousand quail had died at the farm over the past four days.

A ministry spokesman said officials are trying to determine whether it is the deadly H5N1strain of avian influenza.

Last month, the officials in Seoul confirmed two outbreaks of the same highly infectious strain at two poultry farms close to each other. They said they planned to cull more than half a million poultry to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

These were the first known outbreaks of bird flu in South Korea in three years. South Korea culled more than five million birds during the 2003 outbreak.

韩国报告了第三起禽流感疫情，地点在首都首尔以南的一个鹌鹑饲养场。

韩国农业部星期一说，这家农场过去4天里有大约一千只鹌鹑死亡。

农业部发言人说， 有关方面正试图确定这些家禽是否是因感染致命的H5N1型病毒而死亡的。

韩国官员11月证实两个邻近的家禽农场发生了具有高度传染性的H5N1型禽流感疫情。他们表示，计划宰杀50多万只家禽以防止病毒传播。

这是韩国已知的，三年来首批爆发的禽流感。在2003年禽流感爆发期间，韩国宰杀了五百多万只家禽。