Japan Avian Flu - H5N1 - Captain Trips?
The Japanese agriculture ministry has announced plans to cull about 1.5 million chickens following an outbreak of avian flu at poultry farms in Ibaraki and Saitama prefectures.
Officials said it was a relatively weak strain of bird flu and that 504,000 chickens had already been destroyed. An additional 1.024 million birds are to be killed to prevent the disease from spreading.
The area of infection has 30 farms with 4.14 million hens.
Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said there is a strong possibility that the infection was caused by the use of an unauthorized and defective vaccine that contained an active virus. Authorized vaccines contain modified, killed or avirulent viruses or bacteria.
Officials are scrambling to pinpoint the source of the outbreak because even a weak strain of avian flu virus can quickly become highly virulent.
The diluted strain of avian flu was first detected June 26 at a chicken farm in Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture. Chickens at a total of 30 farms in the prefecture and neighboring Saitama Prefecture have since been confirmed to be infected.
The DNA sequence of the flu virus was almost identical to those that were confirmed in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador between 1995 and 2002, they added.
Officials said it was a relatively weak strain of bird flu and that 504,000 chickens had already been destroyed. An additional 1.024 million birds are to be killed to prevent the disease from spreading.
The area of infection has 30 farms with 4.14 million hens.
Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said there is a strong possibility that the infection was caused by the use of an unauthorized and defective vaccine that contained an active virus. Authorized vaccines contain modified, killed or avirulent viruses or bacteria.
Officials are scrambling to pinpoint the source of the outbreak because even a weak strain of avian flu virus can quickly become highly virulent.
The diluted strain of avian flu was first detected June 26 at a chicken farm in Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture. Chickens at a total of 30 farms in the prefecture and neighboring Saitama Prefecture have since been confirmed to be infected.
The DNA sequence of the flu virus was almost identical to those that were confirmed in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador between 1995 and 2002, they added.
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