Scott McPherson's Web Presence

Today, if you are a bird and you are alive in the capital of South Korea, consider yourself lucky.  That also means you are probably not a chicken, duck, pheasant, or turkey.  That is because the government of South Korea took the dramatic step to slaughter every single feathered food source within the confines of the capital of Seoul. 

Myriad newspapers are covering the story today, so I will simply point you toward this story, from the AP and located on  USA Today's Website:

SEOUL (AP) — South Korean officials say they have killed Seoul's entire poultry population to curb the spread of bird flu following a fresh outbreak of the disease in the capital.

Quarantine officials destroyed 15,000 chickens, ducks, pheasants and turkeys raised in farms, restaurants, schools and homes in the city, Kim Yoon-kyu, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, said Monday.

The Seoul government said in a statement that the slaughter was necessary to contain the disease. It said it will now focus on preventing live poultry from being brought into Seoul.

The slaughter began Sunday night, hours after authorities recorded Seoul's second outbreak of bird flu in less than a week.

The slaughter did not affect parrots, parakeets and canaries because they have little chance of spreading the disease, Kim said.

On Monday night, government tests confirmed the latest outbreak in Seoul was caused by the deadly H5N1 virus, said Yoon Young-ku, a spokesman at the Agriculture Ministry.

The tests also confirmed two additional outbreaks of the virus in Busan, brining to 31 the total number of outbreaks in South Korea, he said.

Bird flu began sweeping southern parts of the country last month for the first time in more than a year, forcing the slaughter of about 6.8 million birds.

The virus remains hard for people to catch, but scientists worry it could mutate into a form that spreads more easily between humans, with the potential to kill millions worldwide.

At least 240 people have died from bird flu since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Most human cases so far have been linked to contact with infected poultry.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-05-12-skorea-poultry_N.htm?csp=34

South Korea is currently being ravaged by H5N1 avian influenza.  Perhaps the only other country that can lay claim to the words "currently besieged by bird flu" is India.  No less than 31 separate confirmed outbreaks of high-path H5N1 have been documented in poultry in the past few weeks.

The medicine Seoul is taking to try and halt the spread of H5N1 is drastic, but not unprecedented.  Hong Kong, as we all know, took similar measures in 1997 -- and probably stopped an H5N1 pandemic in its tracks.  It is sad yet comforting to see that another nation is taking the situation as seriously as Hong Kong's government did and decided to act decisively.

Stay tuned for more developments from South Korea.