Via CNN.com: South Korea triples chicken cull. Excerpt:
South Korea's Agriculture Ministry said Thursday that authorities would cull another 609,000 chickens to try and stem the spread of bird flu, more than triple the previous amount designated for slaughter.
Originally, some 155,000 birds had been slated for death, but the ministry said it was expanding the slaughter in the wake of a second outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease in the area of Iksan, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Seoul.
With the latest decision -- affecting birds within a 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) radius of the outbreak sites, both in Iksan -- a total of 764,000 poultry at 40 farms will be culled, the ministry said in a statement. It was not immediately clear the expansion of slaughter would also affect non-poultry animals in the area.
Quarantine officials have already killed more than 150,000 chickens, along with 426 pigs and four dogs, since the initial outbreak was confirmed last week, according to city officials. More than 6.7 million eggs have also been destroyed, they added.
South Korea culled about 5.3 million birds during the last known outbreak of bird flu in 2003.
