South Korea is destroying thousands of birds infected with H5N1, a deadly strain of bird flu, to stop its spread from a quail farm 200 kilometers southwest of the capital, Seoul.
Agriculture Ministry officials said Tuesday they are widening a radius for destroying bird flu-infected poultry around the farm, expanding it from 500 meters to three kilometers.
Officials expect the operation will affect more than 365,000 birds.
The ministry announced the bird flu outbreak Monday after 1,000 quail died at a farm in Gimje over a four-day period.
The outbreak is the third in South Korea in less than a month.
These recent incidents are the first known outbreaks of bird flu in South Korea in three years. The nation destroyed more than five million birds during a 2003 outbreak.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 150 people worldwide. No one is known to have died from the disease in South Korea.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.