Stricter Measures For Poultry Farms As H5N6 Cases Continue To Rise In South Korea

On Friday, South Korea's agriculture ministry issued a temporary nationwide standstill order for poultry farms and other related transport that took effect over the weekend. The standstill order is the ministry's way to contain a wider spread of H5N6 bird flu, which is a severe strain of the avian flu.

According to Fortune, South Korea raised the country's avian flu alert status to its second-highest level on Wednesday after three more outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain. It was reported that the first cases in the country were confirmed about two weeks ago.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement that the new bird flu outbreaks were first discovered at two duck farms in the central and southwestern regions of the country. About 730,000 birds have been seized and killed to prevent the spread of the disease as of Friday according to the ministry, which is less than 1 percent of South Korea's poultry population.

The agriculture ministry raised its bird flu alert level to 'alert,' from 'caution,' as an increasing number of farms are reporting suspected infections in a short period of time. Reuters also reported that a new case was confirmed at a duck farm in the southwestern part of the country, where 16,700 ducks had been culled as a precautionary measure, according to the statement issued by the ministry.

Kim Yong-sang, a senior official at the ministry's animal health management division, said six cases were confirmed as of Friday with four other suspected cases still being tested.

"We believe infected migratory birds have spread the virus and each case occurred separately," Kim said at a briefing. "Currently we are looking into whether the virus also has been spread between farms."

Meanwhile, cases of human infections from the H5N6 virus have previously been reported in places including China and Hong Kong, with the virus killing at least 10 people in China since April 2014. However, there have been zero cases of human infection detected in South Korea.