Bird flu seen unlikely in Japan sparrow deaths

Tokyo, Apr 11: Hundreds of sparrows have been found dead on Japan's northernmost main island since the start of the year, but the cause of death, while undetermined, seems unlikely to be bird flu, a local official today said.

Around 600 sparrows have been found dead in Hokkaido this year, said local government official Atsuyoshi Obata, adding that the deaths came to light through dozens of reports from local residents.

''We haven't been able to determine the cause of the deaths,'' Obata said by telephone, adding that a local university was expected to submit a detailed report based on tests for various types of viruses and parasites later today.

Obata said avian flu was unlikely to be behind the mysterious deaths, which have been limited so far to sparrows.

Local residents have reported seeing crows eating dead sparrows, but there have been no reports of mass deaths of crows, said Obata, an official at a branch office of the Hokkaido regional government.

Several tests for bird flu that were conducted on some of the dead sparrows all turned up negative, another local official said.

''All the cases where...testing was conducted for bird flu have all turned up negative,'' said Takeo Hongo, an official at the Hokkaido government's natural environment division.

In 2004, Japan had four outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry between January and March, including one in Kyoto in western Japan in February 2004 that led to the disposal of about 240,000 chickens and 20 million eggs.

Several outbreaks of the less virulent H5N2 strain occurred in poultry last year in farms near Tokyo.

The H5N1 virus remains primarily a virus affecting birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

So far, most human cases of H5N1 can be traced to direct or indirect contact with infected birds.

REUTERS