November 1, 2005

Japan culls over 82,000 chickens following bird flu outbreak

Japanese officials have culled over 82,000 chickens following the latest bird flu discovery in Ibaraki prefecture. Tests revealed that the Ibaraki farm's chickens had been exposed earlier to a H5 type of bird flu virus but had survived. While there were fears it might be the deadly H5N1 strain, the officials said no active bird flu viruses were found.

The farm was within a quarantined area where authorities had already detected signs of the disease, and culled about 1.5 million birds earlier.