December 3, 2010

High severity bird flu hit Japan's chickens

Chickens which died on a farm in western Japan had a high-severity strain of bird flu, the country's farm ministry said Thursday (Dec 2).

However, it remains unclear on whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. If further tests confirm the virus as H5N1, it would be the first such case in poultry in Japan since 2007.

According to the ministry, at least 30 chickens died at the farm earlier this week and tests conducted so far have discovered the virus has a high genetic similarity to an H5N1 strain found in October in droppings of wild ducks in northern Japan.

There have been no reports of wild bird deaths from bird flu since then.

A ministry official said that virus tests have been conducted at poultry farms within 10 km of the affected farm, but there have not been any reports of a further outbreak.

The farm, in Shimane prefecture, keeps about 20,000 hens for their eggs, all of which are to be killed, burned and buried.