The government said on Tuesday that 28 cases of the H5N6 strain of bird flu had been confirmed since mid-November, with another 10 possible cases being investigated.
It added that if the virus continued to spread, the government could issue a so-called 'standstill order' to prevent workers from the poultry industry moving around the country. That would follow similar temporary restrictions that were introduced over a weekend in late November.
The agriculture ministry said in a statement that 4.4 million farm birds had been slaughtered as of Tuesday, with another 2.6 million expected to be culled. That would be over 8 percent of the country's poultry population of nearly 85 million.
Supplies of chicken, eggs and duck meat have not tightened as of yet, an agriculture ministry official said, but chicken prices are expected to fall as consumer worries grow.
(Reporting by Jane Chung; Editing by Joseph Radford)
