South Korea confirmed another case of highly pathogenic bird flu in poultry Thursday, bringing the total caseload to 98.

The latest case of the H5N8 strain of avian influenza (AI) came from a duck farm in Goesan, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said.

All poultry within a 3-kilometer radius of the infected farm were culled, officials said.

The authorities are investigating another suspected case in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul, they said.

The country has now confirmed a total of 98 cases of highly pathogenic bird flu linked to fowl farms since late November, when it reported the first such case in nearly three years.

Authorities have culled around 28 million poultry to prevent the spread of the disease.

Earlier this week, South Korea decided to ease its intense precautionary measures and cull only poultry within a 1-kilometer radius of infected farms for the next two weeks, compared with the previous guideline of 3 kilometers.

The country will also only destroy the same kind of poultry.

The government will decide whether to extend the measure depending on the situation.

The average consumer price of eggs, meanwhile, continued to gather ground, rising 49.7 percent over the past week compared to a year earlier.

Cases from wild birds reached 186 as of Thursday. (Yonhap)