July 11, 2005
 

Japan finds another new case of bird flu

Despite measures to contain the strain of H5N2 bird flu detected on a Japanese farm late last month, another neighbouring farm in the Ibaraki prefecture has now been hit with bird flu.

An Ibaraki prefecture official said on Jul 11 tests have confirmed a bird flu outbreak on the latest farm, which is likely to be of the same weak strain of the bird flu found on the first farm.

The local government has now ordered the culling of all 8,500 chickens from the farm.

The less virulent H5N2 strain of bird flu was first found at a Mitsukaido chicken farm in Ibaraki prefecture, near Tokyo, on Jun 26. It was the first case of the H5N2 strain in Japan.

To prevent the disease from spreading, the government then restricted the transport of poultry, eggs and other items within a 5-km radius around the farm. Japanese officials also conducted tests on other poultry farms near the flu-hit farm.

The latest farm hit by the bird flu is located about 1.25 km from the first outbreak.