March 8, 2004

Japan's Latest Bird Flu Outbreak Confirmed As Deadly H5N1 Strain

A strain of deadly bird flu virus that has spread through parts of Asia was found in some of 20 chickens that had died at a farm in western Japan, the nation's latest outbreak, officials said Friday.

In what is believed to be the fifth confirmed outbreak in Japan, tests on three of the 20 chickens that have died on a farm in Kyoto prefecture (state) showed they were infected with the H5 virus, in the same category as the H5N1 virus that has spread in Asia, said Hiroshi Nishi, a Kyoto prefectural spokesman.

Further tests are conducted at a national laboratory north of Tokyo to confirm if it matches the H5N1 virus that has killed 22 people in Vietnam and Thailand and spread to Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and South Korea, he said.

The birds were from a farm in the town of Tamba and five kilometers north of another farm where more than 130,000 birds perished last week. The farm with the earlier outbreak, Asada Nosan, has come under fire for not telling authorities that its chickens were dying en masse, preventing officials from containing the disease at an early stage.

The three chickens in the latest case had no contact with birds from the earlier outbreak and authorities were investigating how the flu might have spread. Kyoto is about 370 kilometers west of Tokyo.

Officials have begun to destroy some of the 140,000 chickens at the farm with the latest outbreak to confine the virus from spreading, Nishi said.

On Thursday, about 120 ground troops arrived in Tamba to begin spraying cages at both farms, using the same chemicals that cleaned Tokyo's subways after a religious cult released the nerve gas sarin on trains in 1995.