February 17, 2004

Bird Flu Resurfaces In Southern Japan

Just when Japan thought itself to be rid of bird flu, the virus resurfaced in some chickens in southern Japan, the country's first case in a month, an official said Tuesday.

Seven pet chickens died between Saturday and Monday at a home in the town of Kokonoe in Oita Prefecture, about 850 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, local agricultural official Koji Morita said.

A duck, kept as a pet with the chickens, also tested positive, he said.

Morita said the birds were a small type of chicken usually raised as pets and were different from those raised at chicken farms for consumption.

The virus is believed to be a strain of the H5 virus, in the same category as the H5N1 virus that has spread through much of Asia, Morita said. Samples were sent to a laboratory near Tokyo for further testing.

Local health officials have ordered the family living there to undergo tests to make sure they weren't infected.

Avian flu generally infects only birds, although it has spread to people in a few isolated cases. The latest outbreak has killed 14 people in Vietnam and six in Thailand.

China, Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam have been hit by bird flu. Pakistan and Taiwan are reporting a milder strain of the virus.

Morita said avian flu infection among pet birds was unheard of, and authorities were trying to trace how the virus reached pet birds kept at an ordinary household.

A separate outbreak last month killed thousands of egg-laying chickens at a farm in Yamaguchi prefecture in southwestern Japan, the country's first case in 79 years.