Health officials have confirmed that a cat found dead in a South Korean city was infected with a virulent strain of bird flu. The cat is the first mammal in the country known to have had the H5N1 virus.
They said it was the first report of a cat having had the virus since a case in Thailand in 1996, but that there was little risk to humans as there has never been a known transmission of the virus from a cat to other mammals.
Bird Flu
Bird flu (avian influenza/avian flu) is a disease caused by an influenza virus (H5N1) that primarily affects birds but can infect humans also.
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"It is quite rare for a cat to be infected by the avian flu virus," said Cho Hyun-Ho, a deputy director of the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service.
Cats and dogs are usually not susceptible to the virus, so quarantine officials only normally check animals that have regular contact with birds.
![Readiness on Bird Flu Pandemic to Be Tested by ASEAN Nations]( "Readiness on Bird Flu Pandemic to Be Tested by ASEAN Nations")
Bird flu chiefs from across Southeast Asia have agreed to assess the ability of their governments to respond to a deadly human pandemic of the virus, an Indonesian official said Wednesday.
The cat was found dead in April in Gimje, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Seoul.
"It probably had eaten a sick bird or came in very close contact with chickens or ducks," an unidentified quarantine inspector told Yonhap news agency.
Gimje was one of the first regions hit by South Korea's latest bird flu outbreak, which began in early April and swept through most of the country for nearly two months.
Nearly 8.5 million birds have been put down since the outbreak and the overall cost has been estimated at 264 billion won (262 million dollars).
South Korea has been hit by bird flu outbreaks three times. But no South Korean is known to have contracted the disease, even though the H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
Scientists fear the virus will eventually mutate into a form that is much more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.
Source: AFP
RAS/S
Readiness on Bird Flu Pandemic to Be Tested by ASEAN Nations
Bird flu chiefs from across Southeast Asia have agreed to assess the ability of their governments to respond to a deadly human pandemic of the virus, an Indonesian official said Wednesday.
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The cat was found dead in April in Gimje, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Seoul.
"It probably had eaten a sick bird or came in very close contact with chickens or ducks," an unidentified quarantine inspector told Yonhap news agency.
Gimje was one of the first regions hit by South Korea's latest bird flu outbreak, which began in early April and swept through most of the country for nearly two months.
Nearly 8.5 million birds have been put down since the outbreak and the overall cost has been estimated at 264 billion won (262 million dollars).
South Korea has been hit by bird flu outbreaks three times. But no South Korean is known to have contracted the disease, even though the H5N1 strain has killed more than 240 people worldwide since late 2003.
Scientists fear the virus will eventually mutate into a form that is much more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.
Source: AFP
RAS/S
Year-round Monitoring for Bird Flu Begins in S Korea
South Korea will start year-round monitoring for bird flu after this year's outbreak -- the country's worst -- began later than normal, the agriculture ministry said Tuesday.
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