South Korea said Thursday it is investigating two suspected cases of highly pathogenic bird flu, with the country's total confirmed caseload approaching close to 100.

The latest suspected cases of the H5N8 strain of bird flu were reported from the provinces of North Chungcheong and Gyeonggi, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

South Korea has so far identified 97 farm-linked cases.

The country reported its first seriously contagious avian influenza from poultry farms since 2018 in November.

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)