Japan confirms 2nd case of H5N1
Pastor Dale Morgan
Japan confirms 2nd case of H5N1*
POSTED: 0702 GMT (1502 HKT), January 27, 2007
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- An outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in
southwestern Japan was caused by the H5N1 strain, farm ministry
officials said on Saturday, confirming the second such case in Japan
this month.
There have been no reported cases of human infection.
Local officials were in the process of slaughtering all 50,000 birds on
the farm after 3,200 of them died of the disease. Another 50,000 at an
adjacent farm will also be slaughtered as a precautionary measure, a
local official said.
Earlier tests had shown chickens on the farm in Miyazaki prefecture were
infected with an H5 subtype of bird flu virus, but further testing had
been needed to determine whether it was the H5N1 strain.
The World Health Organization says the H5N1 virus has infected 269
people and killed 163 of them worldwide since 2003. Tens of millions of
birds have been killed by the disease or culled to stop it spreading.
Earlier this month, Japan suffered its first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu
in poultry in more than three years, also in Miyazaki, which is the
country's biggest poultry producing region.
Cases of the disease have flared up across Asia in recent weeks, as in
previous winters, killing six people this month in Indonesia and
infecting poultry across parts of southern Vietnam.
A 14-year-old boy in Azerbaijan was sent to hospital as a suspected case
this week.
The first outbreak of bird flu in the European Union this year was
confirmed on Wednesday after the H5N1 strain was detected in geese in
Hungary.