South Korea widens poultry cull in bid to contain spread of bird flu

South Korea is expanding a poultry cull in a bid to contain the spread of bird flu that has been found on an increasing number of farms around the country and in migratory birds.

The country’s agriculture ministry said the H5N8 strain of bird flu had been detected on six poultry farms and that there had been 13 cases in migratory birds since the first outbreak earlier this month.

South Korea will slaughter over 1.4m farm birds, including 644,000 that have already been killed, according to the ministry. That would be under 1% of the country’s total 160m poultry population.