Avian influenza outbreak in Japan after 2 years

Japan has just confirmed an outbreak of bird flu in Miyazaki Prefecture, 900 km southwest of Tokyo. This is the first outbreak in Japan since 2005.

The Jiji Press and Kyodo News all reported that many chickens at the farm in Miyazaki died from the H5 strain. However, it has not been determined whether this is the strain of H5N1 flu (the strain of flu is likely to harm humans). Reports say there were 2,400 chickens on the farm that died in which 1,650 chickens died yesterday. Japanese officials have yet to comment on this news.

The Japanese government has isolated the remaining poultry flocks on the farm and asked all poultry farms within 10 km of the outbreak to not transport poultry and eggs.

In 2004, Japan declared that the H5N1 outbreak broke out in the country after 79 years. In 2005, Japan also suffered from a number of outbreaks but less virulent strain than H5N2.

HM