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2007-9-3 17:34:51 |
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Japanese health officials on Saturday confirmed that an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain. The outbreak, the second in Japan this month, killed 3,200 poultry, but no human cases were reported this time. Local officials were going to slaughter nearly 50,000 birds on the farm to prevent the disease from spreading. Another 50,000 at a neighboring farm will also be culled as a precautious measure; a local official was cited by Reuters as saying. Earlier, laboratory test results showed that the outbreak was caused by a H5 strain without telling the type. The bird flu virus has infected 267 people in ten countries worldwide and killed more than 161 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The H5N1 virus, most dangerous to birds, both domestic and wild, has resulted in deaths of some 200 million birds worldwide including those sacrificed to prevent spreading of the disease. The Japanese Agriculture Ministry was cited as saying later on Saturday that another outbreak of bird flu was suspected on a farm in Okayama province in western Japan. According to Reuters, seventeen birds have died on the farm where 12,000 chickens were kept in Takahashi, Okayama since Friday, a Ministry official said. "We are doing more detailed tests, and nothing is determined until then," the Agriculture Ministry official was quoted as saying. Earlier, the H5N1 was confirmed in the first outbreak of the month in chicken in southern Japan, The Associate Press cited the Japanese Agricultural Ministry as saying Tuesday Jan 16, 2007. But again no human case of H5N1 bird flu was reported. There has been only one reported non-fatal human case since 2003. That bird flu outbreak killed about 4,000 chickens at a poultry farm in Kiyotake town in Miyazaki state. |
