South Korea plans large-scale culling

South Korea has announced it plans to cull 5.3 million birds to fight against the country's biggest outbreak of bird flu.

The ministry of agriculture states it will start investigations on all 260 duck farms in the country following the 17th confirmed case of bird flu in three weeks. Ministry officials have said that 25 farms have been hit by the disease.

Kim Chang-Sup, director of bird flu handling at the ministry of agriculture, told AFP: "'We have not made a full count of H5N1 outbreaks yet, which should be released after putting this epidemic under control first.

"Simple test kits we use now in the field can verify if it is of avian influenza or not, but not of a subtype. If we confirm outbreaks, our priority goes to culling, not testing."

Over 360 soldiers have been sent to the worst affected North Jeolla province to help slaughter and bury birds.

The World Health Organisation estimates that around 240 human deaths have been reported from the deadly H5N1 strain since 2003.