MIYAZAKI (Kyodo) -- Six chickens have been confirmed infected with a highly pathogenic avian flu virus at a poultry farm in Miyazaki City where dozens of birds were found dead, the Miyazaki prefectural government said Saturday.
The outbreak is the second at a poultry farm in Japan over the autumn and winter season following one in November in Shimane Prefecture, while wild and free-range birds have been found infected with the highly virulent H5N1 bird flu in Hokkaido and Tottori, Kagoshima and Fukushima prefectures since October.
The discovery in Miyazaki is yet another blow to the livestock industry of the southwestern prefecture, which was hit by bird flu in 2007 and a foot-and-mouth epidemic last year that led to the slaughter of about 290,000 cows and pigs.
Following the confirmation in detailed examinations early Saturday after the chickens tested positive for bird flu in Friday's preliminary tests, all the roughly 10,000 chickens at the farm will be culled, according to local government officials.
Six of the seven chickens tested, mostly from among the 36 chickens found dead when the farm reported the incident Friday, were infected with the H5 bird flu strain, the officials said, adding that 10 more chickens there died later.
In Tokyo, the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan will call a task force meeting before noon to address the development with attendance by all Cabinet members except Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, who is visiting Okinawa Prefecture, officials said.
The prefectural government has asked 51 farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the farm in question not to transport their chickens, which number 1.93 million, or eggs.
Based on samples sent by the local government, the National Institute of Animal Health in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, is to check whether the virus is highly virulent, prefectural officials said.
"The virus is very likely a highly virulent one. It is shocking as we have enhanced prevention measures such as patrolling farms," said Shusuke Iwasaki, a senior prefectural official in charge of livestock epidemic prevention, at a predawn press conference.
In a related development the same day, two pairs of Japanese crested ibises that were sent Friday from a conservation center on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture arrived at another breeding enter in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture in a move aimed at preventing the endangered species from being wiped out by an outbreak of infectious disease.
The transfer was initially scheduled for early December but had been put off after the November outbreak of bird flu at a farm in Yasuki in the same prefecture.
January 22, 2011
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