Japan confirms second
outbreak of bird flu
AFP - 17 February 2004
TOKYO - Japan confirmed a second outbreak of bird flu on Tuesday, dealing a
blow to the country’s hopes of declaring itself completely free of the
disease later this week.
A statement from the farm ministry said a fresh outbreak of bird flu had
been found among poultry in the southwest of the country, two days before
Japan had planned to announce it had eradicated the disease.
“We have concluded that the chickens have been infected with bird flu,” the
farm ministry said in a statement. It did not identify the strain of the
virus.
Farm ministry and local government officials said earlier avian flu was
suspected in 13 capon chickens and a duck kept as pets in the town of
Kokonoe in Oita prefecture on Kyushu island in southwestern Japan.
Seven of the birds had died, and at least two tested positive for the
disease in a preliminary examination, an Oita prefectural official said. The
other birds were culled for testing.
The National Institute of Animal Health confirmed the bird flu infection
after final tests.
“Since avian influenza was confirmed, we will take the necessary measures,
including disinfecting the location, controlling the transfer (of birds) and
immunological studies,” the ministry said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters he had ordered the officials
concerned to take “firm measures to prevent the disease spreading.”
A local government official in Oita said that in addition to disinfecting
the garden where the birds were kept, farmers and birds keepers were being
asked not to transport live birds within a 30 kilometre (18.6 mile) radius
of it.
Before Tuesday Japan had reported only one outbreak of bird flu -- the
country’s first since 1925 -- at a poultry farm in a town of Yamaguchi
prefecture at the southwestern tip of the archipelago’s main Honshu island
where 35,000 birds either died or were culled because of the virus.
It appeared to have been contained by swiftly banning the movement of live
birds, eggs and poultry meat from the area, and disposing of the infected
birds and their droppings wrapped in plastic in deep pits.
The government had been preparing to declare the country free of bird flu on
Thursday if no other new cases were reported. Thursday will be the 28th day
since disposal of the infected birds and disinfection of the affected farm.
Experts say bird flu, which has struck 10 Asian nations, killing at least
six people in Thailand, 14 in Vietnam and leading to the slaughter of some
80 million chickens in Asia, is likely spread by migratory birds.
The World Health Organisation’s representative in Thailand said Tuesday the
body was increasingly confident that the deadly H5N1 flu virus will not
cause major human casualties in its current form.
But he cautioned there was still a real fear that bird flu could combine
with an easily transmissable human influenza to create a deadly pathogen
that could kill millions of people.
Meanwhile the United Nations Food and Agriculture Authority said that
despite the massive regional poultry cull, the crisis was far from being
resolved.