SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea on Sunday confirmed itslatest case of bird flu as from the deadly H5N1 strain, addingto a string of outbreaks in recent weeks which led to theculling of more than half a million poultry.

The latest confirmation was in the county of Yeongam inSouth Jeolla province, 320 km (198.8 miles) south of Seoul andabout 100 km from the area in a neighboring province where thefirst outbreak since a year ago was reported on April 3.

Culling of poultry at about 20 farms in the region isalready complete while quarantine officials continue tests onother suspected cases, the South Jeolla provincial livestockoffice said in a statement.

Farm officials have stopped the shipment of millions ofbirds from the two southern provinces and ordered thedestruction of eggs distributed from the area.

South Korea had seven outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strainbetween November 2006 and March 2007 and spent 58 billion won($59.5 million) on quarantine measures.

There had been 238 human deaths globally from the H5N1strain and 376 confirmed cases of infection since 2003according to World Health Organization data. An Egyptian womanhas been reported dead since those figures were available.

A major concern is the possibility of mutation into adisease that easily passes from one person to another,triggering a global pandemic.

($1=975.4 Won)