Korea raises bird flu alert to serious after H5 strain found in Suncheon

South Korea's environment ministry said Tuesday it raised the national avian influenza crisis alert from "caution" to "serious" after the H5 strain of highly pathogenic bird flu was confirmed in wild bird droppings collected at the Suncheon Bay wetlands in South Jeolla Province.

The positive result came from samples taken on Oct. 12 at Daedae-dong in Suncheon and confirmed by the National Institute of Wildlife Disease Control and Prevention. Testing to identify the N subtype through gene sequencing is expected to take three to five days.

It is the first detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza in domestic wild birds this winter. The ministry said the risk of the virus entering and spreading through the country has grown, noting that overseas detections in wild birds more than doubled to 2,957 cases between January and August this year from 1,432 in the same period of 2025.

With the confirmation, the government activated a governmentwide avian influenza central disaster response headquarters and ordered every local government to set up an emergency operations room and move to a 24-hour response system.

The environment ministry notified the agriculture ministry and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and requested emergency measures from local governments, including searches for dead wild birds, detailed surveys of migratory birds and on-site disinfection and access restrictions within a 10-kilometer radius of the detection site. The agriculture ministry imposed movement controls, detailed testing and telephone monitoring on poultry raised within that same radius, designated the area within 3 kilometers of the Suncheon Bay waterfront as a special management zone with restrictions on people and vehicles, and set the next seven days as a nationwide intensive disinfection period for poultry farms and livestock facilities.

Authorities advised the public to avoid visiting rivers, reservoirs and tidal flats where migratory birds gather, to stay away from wild birds and to disinfect shoes and vehicles and wash hands thoroughly afterward. Anyone who finds a dead or sick wild bird should not touch or move it and should report it to the local government or the wildlife disease institute. Poultry farmers were told to block visitors and vehicles, disinfect their premises daily and report suspected cases, such as unusually high deaths or a drop in egg production, to animal disease authorities.

"The most effective way to stop the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza is to detect the risk early and respond quickly," said Lee Chae-eun, director general of the environment ministry's nature conservation bureau. "We will closely monitor the movement routes of wild birds and the virus situation and raise our on-site response capacity in close cooperation with related agencies."

Lee Dong-sik, director general of the agriculture ministry's quarantine policy bureau, said the risk of outbreaks at farms has risen now that the virus has been confirmed in wild birds, and urged poultry farmers and livestock workers to maintain thorough preventive measures.