Tests have confirmed that bird flu detected in chickens in
southern Japan was the virulent H5N1 strain that has caused more
than 160 human deaths worldwide, the Japanese Agriculture Ministry
said Tuesday.
The virus, identified by the National Institute of Animal
Health, killed about 4,000 chickens last week at a farm in Kiyotake
town in Miyazaki prefecture (state).
The institute is still running tests for DNA analysis and more
pathogenic details of the virus, including its strength, the
ministry said in a statement.
Miyazaki, about 900 km southwest of Tokyo, is Japan's largest
chicken producing region.
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Officials on Monday burned all the dead birds and culled the 8,000
surviving chickens at the farm. Authorities also banned the
shipment of eggs and chickens at 16 farms within a 10-km radius of
the affected farm, where local authorities were to take further
disinfectant measures Tuesday.
The Agriculture Ministry also ordered a nationwide inspection of
poultry farms to detect any signs of sick birds, and environment
officials began a national survey to look into the possibility that
a bird flu virus might have been brought by migratory birds.
Since 2003, the H5N1 bird flu strain has killed at least 161
people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Bird flu was found in Japan in 2004 for the first time in
decades. There has been one confirmed human case involving the H5N1
virus in Japan, but no reported human deaths.
Adding to regional worries, a senior Thai agriculture official
said on Monday that 1,900 ducks had been culled in the northern
province of Phitsanulok after some of the birds had tested positive
for H5N1.
In Vietnam, the virus appeared to be spreading fast among fowl
in the country's southern Mekong Delta, the major rice-growing
region.
(China Daily via agencies January 17, 2007)
