SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Korean government officials Friday (9 May) scrambled to come up with ideas to contain the outbreak of avian influenza that hit the country last month.

The government and the ruling Grand National Party held an emergency meeting to step up the fight against bird flu, which has spread to all regions of the country except Jeju Island.

At the meeting, officials decided to prohibit the sale of live chickens and ducks to consumers and merchants at markets nationwide, since they are the locations most vulnerable to diseases.

A registration system for transportation vehicles of farm products will be set up and measures will be taken to beef up control over unauthorised butchering of birds at private stores or restaurants.

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service confirmed that the highly pathogenic avian influenza was discovered in dead ducks and chickens in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

Decontamination facilities were established at 47 locations in Chuncheon and regional officials vowed to move forward with sanitation efforts in cooperation with the central government. On Thursday (8 May), 358 chickens sold at 10 different places within the region were slaughtered, officials said.

As of Friday, there were a total of 35 cases of avian influenza, which can be transmitted to humans, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

In Seoul, the city government announced that avian influenza was only discovered in the Gwangjin district after conducting a two-day examination of 18,647 birds across the city earlier this week.

Officials also said the two dead pheasants found at a nature learning centre in Gwangjin, eastern Seoul, caught the virus while being moved to the Moran market from infected chicks and ducks that came from Anseong, Gyeonggi Province.

"According to test results, a truck from the Anseong farm stopped at 13 different markets during the transportation process. We believe the virus was spread in this process and that the truck played a significant role," said Lee Sung, chief of the economic competitiveness bureau at the city government.

About 830 veterinarians will be dispatched to conduct checks at sites where birds can commonly be found. The areas will be cleaned and decontaminated up to three times a day, city officials said.

The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies said it will take the lead in publicising the truth about bird flu and US beef as public panic mounts, at a press conference Friday.

"The laidback attitude of state health authorities and their late response to such situations indicate that a fundamental problem exists in the nation's quarantine system," said association officials.

"Although Korea is yet to be designated as a nation with common outbreaks of the bird flu virus, we must devise special quarantine measures to block the spread of the virus at the beginning stage. We will devote our utmost efforts to ease the public's anxiety by delivering precise facts about the diseases." (By CHO JI-HYUN/ The Korea Herald/ ANN)