February 2, 2007

Japan confirms virus in latest bird flu outbreak

Japanese officials have confirmed that a bird flu virus from the H5 family killed dozens of chickens in the latest outbreak to hit the country's poultry stocks, an official said Thursday (Feb 1).

Authorities were still working to confirm if the outbreak of the virus in Shitomi, south-western Miyazaki prefecture, was of the H5N1 strain deadly to humans, Agriculture Ministry official Yasushi Yamaguchi said.

The case marks Japan's fourth bird flu incident in the past month and the third to hit poultry farms in Miyazaki, Japan's largest chicken-producing region.

Thousands of birds have been slaughtered since the first of the outbreaks. The Shitomi farm has already been quarantined and chicken ranchers within a 10-kilometre radius told not to transport poultry out of the area.