June 26, 2006

Japan declares Ibaraki prefecture free from H5N2

The governor of a northern Japanese prefecture on Friday (Jun 23) declared a year-long outbreak of the mild strain of bird flu infecting local poultry farms to be over.

Gov. Masaru Hashimoto announced in a statement that birds at all 40 poultry farms in Ibaraki Prefecture have now tested negative in checks for either the H5N2 strain of the bird flu virus or H5N2 antibodies, which would indicate a bird had been previously exposed.

The prefecture destroyed about 5.7 million birds since the outbreak began last June in the effort to contain the disease, the statement said.

The disease hit Japan in 2004 for the first time in decades. There has been one confirmed human case involving the virulent H5N1 virus in Japan in Dec 2004, but no reported human deaths.

Ibaraki is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Tokyo.