Japan says bird flu outbreak from H5N1

Tokyo, Jan 27: An outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan was caused by the H5N1 strain of the virus, farm ministry officials said today, 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 culling 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, media said.

Earlier tests had shown the 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 which has killed 163 people worldwide since 2003 and forced the culling of 200 million birds.

Earlier this month, Japan suffered its first outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in poultry in more than three years.

Reuters