http://kevxml2a.verizon.net/_1_2JW6TO103K2V56N__vzn.isp/apnws/
story.htm?
kcfg=apart&sin=D8MTG4JO1&qcat=health&ran=10239&passqi=&feed=ap&top=1
"News
01/27/2007 02:41:20 EST Tests Confirm Bird Flu Outbreak in Japan
By CARL FREIRE
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO - Tests confirmed that an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm
in southern Japan was caused by the virulent H5N1 virus, the
agriculture ministry said Saturday.
A state laboratory analyzed samples from 3,000 chickens that died at a
farm in Hyuga in Miyazaki state, Japan's main chicken-producing
region, and found the birds had been infected with H5N1, the Ministry
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement.
Earlier this month, some 4,000 chickens died from H5N1 in another town
in Miyazaki, about 560 miles southwest of Tokyo.
Authorities began slaughtering the remaining 49,000 chickens at the
Hyuga farm on Friday, state official Hisao Takase said.
About 21,000 birds had been destroyed by Saturday afternoon, Takase
said. Another 50,000 chickens at a neighboring farm will also be
killed as a precaution.
The H5N1 virus has killed or forced the slaughter of millions of birds
across Asia since late 2003, and caused the deaths of at least 163
people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Japan has confirmed only one human H5N1 infection, and no human
deaths.
The bird flu virus remains hard for humans to catch, but international
experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily among
humans and possibly kill millions around the world."
|