New bird flu case suspected at Japan poultry farm

TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) Japanese authorities are checking if bird flu killed more than 200 chickens at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan, the Agriculture Ministry said today.

If confirmed, it would be the second outbreak this month of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which can be fatal to humans.

The farm, which has about 50,000 birds, is situated in Hyuga in Miyazaki Prefecture, where 10 days ago the government confirmed an H5N1 outbreak -- Japan's first such case in three years.

Miyazaki, on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, is the country's top breeder of chickens.

In the latest suspected outbreak, 243 chickens had died yesterday, the Agricultural Ministry and Miyazaki government said.

Kyodo news agency said about 570 had died on Monday and Tuesday, but a Miyazaki official would not confirm that figure.

A simple preliminary test for H5N1 showed positive for some birds, but more tests were needed for final confirmation.

In the earlier outbreak, the government imposed a 10-km (six-mile) quarantine zone around the infected farm, banning shipments of eggs and chickens to areas outside the zone.

Renewed fears over the disease have rippled across Asia in recent weeks. Hong Kong confirmed yesterday that three more dead birds found in the southern Chinese city carried the H5N1 virus, the third such case this month.

Five people have died of bird flu in Indonesia since January. 1, while the virus has spread among poultry across parts of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Thailand reported its first outbreak in poultry in six months earlier this month.

In 2004, Japan had four H5N1 poultry outbreaks between January and March, including one in Kyoto in western Japan that led to 240,000 chickens being culled and 20 million eggs destroyed.

REUTERS AB PM1806