March 16, 2004

No Trace Of Bird Flu In Korea Wild Birds
 
Japan's Environment Ministry said Monday that South Korean authorities told its research mission dispatched to the country that bird flu wasn't detected in wild birds there, although the possibility of the fowl transmitting the virus cannot be ruled out, Kyodo News Service reported.
 
Keiichi Nakazawa, the ministry's poultry and animal expert who visited South Korea from Thursday to Sunday, said the South Korean authorities didn't detect the virus in 5,460 samples of droppings collected from places inhabited by migratory birds, as well as in 40 wild birds captured near farms hit by the outbreaks.
 
But he also quoted the South Korean authorities as saying the results cannot prove that wild birds aren't a transmission route for the virus, Kyodo said.
 
Nakazawa said 17 outbreaks were confirmed in South Korea from Dec. 15 to Jan. 26. No cases have been found there since, he said.
 
Twelve of the 17 poultry farms affected were located within a radius of 50- 60 kilometers, while the other five were scattered in places in the south.
 
The South Korean authorities told Japanese officials they believe the transmission was cause by human factors such as the sales of chicks and movement of people, although the reason remains unclear why the contagion centered around the first place of outbreak, Kyodo News reported.
 
The Environment Ministry said an estimated 280 kinds of migratory birds travel between Japan and South Korea.
 
So far, 11 kinds have been confirmed to migrate from Japan, but the routes and information on other birds are unknown as South Korea doesn't conduct surveys using indicators attached to the fowl.
 
Two staff members of the Japan Wildlife Research Center, which is under the ministry's jurisdiction, will remain in South Korea until Wednesday to conduct more detailed observations there, Kyodo said.
 
The bird flu virus has hit South Korea, China, Vietnam and Thailand since late last year and resulted in human deaths in the latter two countries.
 
In Japan, the first outbreak of the virus in 79 years was confirmed at a farm in Yamaguchi Prefecture in January. It was then detected in chickens at a household in Oita Prefecture in February and two poultry farms in Kyoto Prefecture in the past few weeks.