Fresh bird flu outbreak in Japan prompts chicken kill

TOKYO: Local authorities in southwestern Japan will begin incinerating 12,000 dead chickens on a farm later on Monday as part of efforts to stop the spread of a recent bird flu outbreak, an official said.

"Incineration of the poultry's 12,000 chickens will begin this evening and last until tomorrow," said Hisanori Ogura, an agricultural official of Miyazaki prefecture.

"So far, we have not received any reports of spread of the outbreak," Ogura said. "Also, there has been no panic among local residents."

On Saturday, the government confirmed the outbreak after 3,900 chickens were found dead at the farm in the prefecture, some 900 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.

But it was still not clear if the outbreak involved the H5N1 strain, which is potentially deadly to humans.

Agricultural officials of the prefecture culled the remaining 8,100 chickens at the farm on Sunday, and all 12,000 birds there will be incinerated.

They also put the farm under a massive sanitation programme while ordering 11 other poultry farms within a 10-kilometre radius not to move chickens and eggs.

Japan confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in January 2004.

Since then, the nation has seen several more cases of outbreaks of the H5N1 strain as well as the less serious H5N2 virus.

Health experts have warned that four bird flu deaths in Indonesia and a spate of new poultry outbreaks in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia are signs the virus could make a resurgence this northern winter.