South Korea on Wednesday announced a set of measures to encourage the consumption of chicken and other poultry amid mounting concern about the highly infectious avian flu.

The South Korean Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said it will sponsor a series of events featuring by sports stars and doctors eating poultry and increase the amount of poultry provided to public cafeterias, according to South Korean Yonhap News Agency.

To set an example for the public to follow, all ministry officials had chicken for lunch at the main cafeteria of the government complex in Gwacheon, reported Yonhap.

Until public poultry consumption returns to normal, the ministry will sponsor the event every Wednesday in cooperation with associations of chicken and duck farmers, said Yonhap.

The ministry also plans to place TV advertisements and issue chicken coupons to raise public awareness of the flu, which experts say does not affect humans when poultry are well cooked.

Most South Koreans have avoided chicken and duck after bird flu caused human deaths in some Southeast Asia countries.

Nearly 70 percent of local people reduced their chicken consumption after the disease was discovered in Seoul in December, leading to a 26.4 percent decline in consumption compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a poll. This also has led to a sharp fall in prices.

South Korea has culled about 2.4 million chickens and other fowl to stem the spread of the highly contagious disease.

There were, however, no signs that the disease has crossed the species barrier to humans here. None of the more than 1,500 South Korean people believed to have been exposed to the flu tested positive.