South Korea culls all domestic fowl in Seoul

SEOUL, May 13 (Reuters) - South Korea has culled all domestic fowl in the Seoul area in a bid to contain a second outbreak of bird flu to hit the capital in less than a week.

The country has confirmed 31 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain in poultry since the beginning of April and has since slaughtered more than 7 million chickens and ducks.

But that has not stopped the virus from spreading throughout South Korea at its fastest rate since the first local outbreak was reported in 2003.

The farm ministry said Seoul had finished slaughtering all 15,000 chickens and ducks raised in the city as a pre-emptive measure after a bird flu outbreak at a duck farm in the city's Songpa district was confirmed late on Monday.

Last week Seoul said that four birds raised in pens at a district government office in the eastern part of the city were found dead and tested positive for the avian flu virus.

South Korea has since limited access to livestock markets and stepped up quarantine work.

The country had to kill 5.3 million birds during its first avian influenza outbreak between late 2003 and early 2004. The second outbreak in 2006-2007 saw about half that number culled.

The South Korean government plans to raise its stockpile of vaccines such as Tamiflu to a sufficient levels to treat 2.5 million people, or 5 percent of the country's population, the presidential Blue House said on its website. (Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)