breaking news bird flu found in japan, page-3

TOKYO, June 26 - The deaths of hundreds of chickens in eastern Japan earlier this year may have been caused by a fresh outbreak of bird flu, a local official said on Sunday.

Around 430 chickens died between March and May at a chicken farm in Ibaraki prefecture that keeps 25,000 chickens in all, and an initial test showed that the deaths may been caused by avian flu, a local government official said.

The incident was reported to local officials on Friday, and a government laboratory is now conducting checks to confirm whether or not the deaths were caused by the virus, he said.

Local officials inspected the farm on Saturday, but found "no particular irregularities" among chickens, the official added.

Japan suffered several outbreaks of bird flu last year, including an outbreak in Kyoto in western Japan in February.

After the February 2004 outbreak, some 240,000 chickens and 20 million eggs were disposed of at the Kyoto farm and another one nearby to prevent the infection spreading