bird flu 'fatal to humans', page-2

aust, short plane trip away Japan to cull 19,000 chickens exposed to bird flu
Sat Dec 10, 2005 6:52 AM GMT
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese authorities have ordered the culling of 19,000 chickens at a farm north of Tokyo, after avian flu antibodies were found in some of the poultry, a local official said on Saturday.

Tests showed that chickens at a farm in Ibaraki prefecture had been exposed to the H5 strain of avian flu, although the virus itself was not detected, said Nobuhito Kuriyama, an official with the Ibaraki prefectural government's livestock industry division.

Circumstances suggest the virus they were exposed to was not the virulent H5N1 strain, which has killed 70 people in Asia.

"We haven't heard that there were any symptoms ... So we think it was probably the less-virulent H5N2 strain as has been the case previously (in Ibaraki)," he said, adding it was hard to say for certain since the virus itself was not found.

Exactly how long ago the chickens had been exposed to avian flu also remains undetermined, the official said, adding that local authorities became aware of the latest case on Friday.

So far, the only strain of bird flu virus found in Ibaraki -- which has been hit by a number of outbreaks since June -- have involved the weaker H5N2 strain, the official said.

Excluding the latest order, nearly 2.1 million chickens have been culled in Ibaraki so far due to the outbreaks, he said.

The bird flu virus, which remains hard for people to catch and is spread almost exclusively through human contact with birds, is now endemic in poultry in parts of Asia.

Health officials fear the virus could evolve into a form that could pass easily from person to person and set off a global flu pandemic that could kill millions and cause massive economic losses.