March 12, 2004

Japan, South Korea Cooperate In Bird Flu Fight

Japan and South Korea will work together in a bid to rid the bird flu virus in their respective countries.
 
Japan has dispatched experts to South Korea on Thursday to ask about wild birds possibly infected with an avian flu that has struck Asia, as authorities adopted new measures aimed at containing the widening outbreak.
 
The three-man delegation left as officials in western Japan ordered poultry farmers to cover their feedlots with nets to prevent their flocks from coming in contact with wild birds that might be spreading the avian flu.
 
An Environment Ministry official, who declined to be identified, said the experts would meet with officials in Seoul to share information about migratory birds flying between the two countries. They were expected to ask about possible infections in wild birds and planned to conduct a survey of birds near outbreak sites in South Korea.
 
South Korea - one of eight Asian countries and territories that have confirmed outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 virus - discovered its first case of bird flu in December, and has since destroyed more than 2.4 million chickens and other fowl.
 
In January, Japan announced it too was coping with an outbreak. The disease has spread to at least five locations across the country and caused the deaths of more than 270,000 birds but there has been no case of human infection.
 
Last week, three dead wild crows were found in western Japan, two of which have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus - the strain that has killed 22 people in Vietnam and in Thailand.
 
On Thursday, follow-up tests showed that the third crow had the H5 strain, said Yoshinobu Furukawa, a western Osaka prefectural government official. Further tests would show whether it was H5N1, he said.
 
The crow was discovered about 25 miles from where the other two were found dead last week. That pair had died near two farms in western Kyoto prefecture that have been the site of Japan's largest outbreak so far.
 
Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota told poultry farmers Thursday to use nets to prevent chickens and other fowl from mixing with wild birds. Environment Ministry officials also began using cages to capture and test birds in Osaka and Kyoto.
 
Earlier Thursday, 126 chickens were found dead on a farm in southern Japan, but the Fukuoka prefectural goverment said in a statement that initial tests on some birds were negative for bird flu.
 
Kyodo News service quoted unnamed officials as saying they suspected the birds may have died of heat stroke.