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Updated Sunday, November 25, 2007 0:00 am TWN, AP & Reuters

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S. Korea, Myanmar report bird flu outbreaks; HK bird tests positive for H5N1

SEOUL/YANGON/HONG KONG -- South Korea’s first bird flu outbreak in eight months forced the slaughter of thousands of ducks in the country’s south Saturday, although the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved, the government said. The virus that caused the latest outbreak was a “low pathogenic” H7 strain that has not been known to spread to humans, said an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Quarantine workers slaughtered about 17,000 ducks at the farm in Gwangju, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) southwest of the capital, Seoul, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

Meanwhile, Myanmar reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus at a chicken farm in the northeast, state media and an international livestock health agency said Saturday. Unusual deaths of chickens at a farm in a village in Shan State’s Keng Tung township were reported on Nov. 18, and laboratory tests confirmed that H5N1 was detected in some of them, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

Also Saturday, the Hong Kong government said that a little egret found in a park has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus.

The bird was collected at the Tuen Mun Park in the New Territories on Nov. 18, the city’s agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said. It urged Hong Kong residents to avoid personal contact with wild birds and live poultry.

It is not the first appearance of the disease in the territory: at least 17 infected birds were discovered in the first half of this year.

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