A new outbreak of a deadly bird flu strain has been detected in Gimje, North Jeolla Province. The new case affects a poultry farm along a national highway just like the previous two farms in Iksan, giving rise to concerns that it is due to a quarantine failure. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on Monday said investigation into the cause of death of 3,700 quail at the farm in the four days since Dec. 7 revealed that they were infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza. The farm owner, who was raising 290,000 quail, reported the case on Sunday as the number of deaths surged from 20 to 200 and 2,000 since Dec. 7.

Officials take quarantine measures at a quail farm where a new case of highly pathogenic avian influenza broke out, in Gimje, North Jeolla Province on Monday./Yonhap

The quail farm is 18 km south of the first infected poultry farm in Iksan, suggesting the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 virus has spread outside the 10 km radius alert area of Iksan and could spread further. But the director of the ministry's livestock bureau Lee Sang-kil said, "Our epidemiological tests so far suggest that the new case at the quail farm in Gimje is not related with the first and second cases that broke out in Iksan.” The quail farm is 16 km and 13 km south of the two poultry farms in Iksan. All three are near National Highway no. 23.

Officials take measures at a quail farm where a new case of highly pathogenic avian influenza broke out, in Gimje, North Jeolla Province on Monday.

North Jeolla Province denies there is any connection, saying there was no contact between the first two farms and the third. “Quail are hardy birds, and it seems the infected birds got the virus from migratory birds at the same time as the poultry in Iksan and fell ill after the full incubation period of 21 days," provincial authorities said. However, they added this was an initial assumption and no details of how the quail became infected have been confirmed.

Experts say Korea needs to be on alert until March or April. Their overwhelming opinion is that the virus is spread by the excretions of migratory birds, so fresh cases may occur as long as the birds are here. North Jeolla Province had believed the virus suppressed since there were no new cases in the last two weeks, but is tightening quarantine measures again after the third case. Authorities have set up three checkpoints in a 500 m radius of the quail farm to control movement of poultry. Some 290,000 quails at the farm and breeding chickens within a 500 m radius are to be culled by Wednesday.

(englishnews@chosun.com )