South Korea has banned imports of chicken, ducks, pet birds, poultry meat and eggs from France after a case of bird flu was confirmed there.
 
Health authorities of the European Commission confirmed a case of the H5N1 strain of the disease at a small hen farm in France’s southwestern region of Dordogne. The authorities instructed the farm to cull all of its birds.
 
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said that this year, South Korea imported from France one ton of duck meat, 13 tons of duck liver, some 840-thousand chicks and around 40-thousand ducklings.     
 
The ministry said cases of highly-pathogenic strain of avian influenza were confirmed in 27 countries this year. The ministry said it had urged South Koreans traveling to those countries to refrain from visiting livestock farms and markets and to not bring in livestock products.