Agriculture officials in South Korea have confirmed that avian influenza was responsible for the deaths of thousands of chickens earlier this month.
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The country began an investigation after 20,000 chickens died at a farm in Umsung, around 40 miles southeast of Seoul. A further 5,000 chickens at the farm were slaughtered in a move to try to stop the spread of the highly contagious bird flu. All poultry within a six-mile radius were also quarantined as a preventative measure.
Tests showed that this outbreak had been caused by the H5N1 virus, but as yet the authorities are not clear whether it is the H5N1-97 strain which crossed from chickens to humans in Hong Kong in 1997 leading to the deaths of six people, reported the Associated Press.
