January 27, 2011

 

Bird flu virus suspected in Japan's Aichi chickens

 

 

The bird flu epidemic is likely to have spread to Aichi, where chickens suspected of being infected with a highly pathogenic avian flu virus were found at a poultry farm, the farm ministry said Wednesday (Jan 26).

 

This could be the fifth outbreak this winter following outbreaks in Shimane, Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures.

 

At the poultry farm in Toyohashi, about 450 chickens died in four days through Wednesday (Jan 26). Four chickens there were tested positive for bird flu in a preliminary examination, the Aichi prefectural government said.

 

The local authority will conduct a gene test on the chickens there for more detailed examination, the results of which are expected to be out early Thursday (Jan 27), it said.

 

If the chickens in Aichi are confirmed infected with the avian flu virus, about 150,000 chickens raised at the farm for eggs would be killed in accordance with an act on domestic animal infectious disease control.

 

Some four million chickens and their eggs from about 50 farms in Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures within a 10-kilometre radius of the farm in question will also be prohibited from being transported.

 

At the Aichi farm, infected chickens were found at only one of the four poultry houses. Since the house does not have a window, it is hard for a wild bird to get in.

 

Further spread of avian flu is feared as a number of wild birds have been found infected with the virus across the country. In the latest case, a wild mandarin duck in Kochi Prefecture was found positive for bird flu in a preliminary exam Wednesday (Jan 26).

 

At the House of Representatives plenary session, Prime Minister Naoto Kan showed concern about the spread of bird flu to Kagoshima and Aichi prefectures and said the Cabinet ''will do its utmost to tackle it.''

 

After holding a taskforce meeting of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, farm minister Michihiko Kano also made a similar pledge to exert an all-out effort to prevent the infection from spreading.

 

Meanwhile, the Kagoshima prefectural government said the same day chickens at a poultry farm in the city of Izumi have been confirmed infected with the H5 bird flu strain in a detailed examination.

 

The local government killed all 8,600 chickens being raised there.

 

Kagoshima, whose total chicken and egg shipments in 2009 were the largest among the nation's 47 prefectures at 77.1 billion yen, has already ordered some 160 farms within a 10-kilometre radius of the farm in question to refrain from moving their 5.22 million chickens and eggs.

 

To ward off the epidemic, 10 sterilisation stations were placed at nearby roads and the farm ministry's emergency support team and experts were dispatched to the prefecture.

 

According to Kagoshima Prefecture, a total of 198 birds died between January 19 and January 25 at the poultry farm, where the flu outbreak was confirmed.

 

The farm is located in close proximity to a wintering place for hooded cranes, where some of the birds were found infected with avian flu, the Kagoshima government said.