A health official sterilizes a poultry farm in Emseong. [Yonhap News Photo]
Health authorities Friday reported a bird flu outbreak caused by the H5N6 virus which has been detected at a South Korean poultry farm for the first time.
Ducks at a poultry farm in Emseong, 90 kilometers (54 miles) south of Seoul, were found to have been infected with the H5N6 avian flu virus that has killed six people in China, the agriculture ministry said.
Some 22,000 ducks were slaughtered and buried on Wednesday after the farm in Emseong reported a suspected bird flu case, the ministry said, adding a sanitary cordon line has been extended in the county.
Emseong was the epicenter of South Korea's worst bird flu outbreak in 2014 when some 1.8 million ducks and chickens were slaughtered. The virus was detected first from the excrement of a migratory bird last Friday near a river in Chonan south of Seoul, prompting the ministry to sterilize poultry farms in the area.
H5N6 is a novel reassortant between H5N1 and a H6N6 virus that had widely been circulating in ducks. It was first detected at a poultry market in China in March 2014 and has been detected in Vietnam, Laos, and Hong Kong.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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