SEOUL, July 26 (Reuters) - South Korean authorities have placed a cat shelter in the capital Seoul under quarantine after detecting the H5N1 strain of bird flu in two cats at the facility, the country's agriculture ministry said.

There have been no cases of the highly pathogenic bird flu reported in humans in South Korea, the ministry said.

It was the first time since 2016 that avian influenza had been detected in a cat in the country, the ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday.