South Korea confirms bird flu cases as foot-and-mouth disease spreads

South Korea, already battling a serious outbreak of food-and-mouth disease in livestock, on Friday confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at poultry farms.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus was detected in ducks in  the city of Cheonan, South Chungcheong province, and in chickens in the city of Iksan in North Jeolla province, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

Detection of the virus had prompted the authorities to cull affected poultry and quarantine commercial duck, chicken breeding farms in affected areas, the statement said.

The government raised the bird flu alert to caution from attention, while its foot-and-mouth disease alert remained at the highest level, the ministry said in two statements. So far, 540,000 pigs, cattle and other livestock have been culled.

South Korea has no human cases of the high-severity bird  flu strain. It has had three outbreak of the virus at poultry farms in the past ten years, according to another ministry  statement.

The nationwide outbreak of foot-and-mouth has prompted shutdowns of all livestock markets in South Korea, leading to a rise in the price of beef and pork and a possible rise in imports from the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth, which affects livestock including sheep, cows and pigs, originated in pigs in the city of Andong in North Gyeongsang province on November 28. The government has been conducting vaccinations in badly affected areas.