SEOUL, March 8 (Reuters) - South Korea confirmed on Thursday its seventh outbreak in the past several months of highly virulent bird flu, despite a mass culling and other measures to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain.

The latest outbreak was at a poultry farm in Chonan, about 90 km (55 miles) south of Seoul, where a similar outbreak had taken place in January, the agriculture minister said.

In November, South Korea confirmed its first case of the H5N1 strain in about three years.

As of March 1, bird flu had killed 167 people globally over the past four years, according to the World Health Organisation.

It largely remains an animal disease, but the big concern is that it could mutate into a disease that easily passes from human to human, triggering a global pandemic.

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