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Bird flu is suspected in the deaths of 17 chickens at a farm in western Japan, the agriculture ministry said Saturday, just hours after it confirmed an earlier outbreak of bird flu was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Authorities were investigating a possible outbreak at a poultry farm in Takahashi, western Okayama prefecture (state), where 17 birds had died since Friday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement. "The number of deaths is small, but we decided it was better to announce the possibility of an outbreak sooner rather than later," ministry official Yasushi Yamaguchi said. The dead birds would be checked at an animal health facility in the state for the bird flu virus, he said. In the meantime, the remaining 12,000 birds at the farm would be quarantined, while neighboring farms asked to keep a watch on their own poultry stocks, the statement said. akahashi is about 560 kilometers (347 miles) west of Tokyo. The news came hours after the ministry reported that tests had confirmed the deadly H5N1 virus killed 3,000 chickens at a poultry farm in southern Japan earlier this week.
A state laboratory had analyzed samples taken from the dead birds from a farm in Hyuga in Miyazaki prefecture, Japan's main chicken-producing region, and found they had been infected with H5N1, the ministry said in a statement. Earlier this month, some 4,000 chickens died from H5N1 in another town in Miyazaki, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo. Authorities began slaughtering the remaining 49,000 chickens at the Hyuga farm on Friday, prefectural official Hisao Takase said. About 21,000 birds had been destroyed by Saturday afternoon, Takase said. Another 50,000 chickens at a neighboring farm will also be killed as a precaution, Takase said. The H5N1 virus has killed or forced the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003, and caused the deaths of at least 163 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Japan has confirmed only one human H5N1 infection, and no human deaths. The bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch, but international experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans and possibly kill millions around the world.
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=9573&cat=dis&lang=eng
Bird flu is suspected in the deaths of 17 chickens at a farm in western Japan, the agriculture ministry said Saturday, just hours after it confirmed an earlier outbreak of bird flu was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Authorities were investigating a possible outbreak at a poultry farm in Takahashi, western Okayama prefecture (state), where 17 birds had died since Friday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement. "The number of deaths is small, but we decided it was better to announce the possibility of an outbreak sooner rather than later," ministry official Yasushi Yamaguchi said. The dead birds would be checked at an animal health facility in the state for the bird flu virus, he said. In the meantime, the remaining 12,000 birds at the farm would be quarantined, while neighboring farms asked to keep a watch on their own poultry stocks, the statement said. akahashi is about 560 kilometers (347 miles) west of Tokyo. The news came hours after the ministry reported that tests had confirmed the deadly H5N1 virus killed 3,000 chickens at a poultry farm in southern Japan earlier this week.
A state laboratory had analyzed samples taken from the dead birds from a farm in Hyuga in Miyazaki prefecture, Japan's main chicken-producing region, and found they had been infected with H5N1, the ministry said in a statement. Earlier this month, some 4,000 chickens died from H5N1 in another town in Miyazaki, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo. Authorities began slaughtering the remaining 49,000 chickens at the Hyuga farm on Friday, prefectural official Hisao Takase said. About 21,000 birds had been destroyed by Saturday afternoon, Takase said. Another 50,000 chickens at a neighboring farm will also be killed as a precaution, Takase said. The H5N1 virus has killed or forced the slaughter of millions of birds across Asia since late 2003, and caused the deaths of at least 163 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Japan has confirmed only one human H5N1 infection, and no human deaths. The bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch, but international experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans and possibly kill millions around the world.
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=9573&cat=dis&lang=eng
