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Japan confirms new bird-flu outbreak

Japan's Agriculture Ministry confirmed yesterday the nation's second outbreak of bird flu, after the deaths of seven chickens on the southern island of Kyushu.

Japan's first case of the disease was in January at a farm in Yamaguchi prefecture at the southern end of the main island of Honshu.

"Yes, the second case of bird flu is confirmed," a ministry official said.

"Details such as which type of virus are not available at this moment," he said.

At least 20 people have died in Thailand and Vietnam from the species-jumping strain of avian influenza and millions of poultry have died or been culled across Asia to try to halt the virus, which is thought to be spread by migratory birds.

Initial tests in Japan appeared to indicate an outbreak of bird flu affecting about 14 birds, of which seven died at the weekend and the rest were slaughtered, the Agricultural Ministry said. The birds died on a farm on Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island.

Officials had said Japan could declare its one confirmed outbreak of bird flu on a farm at the southern end of the main island of Honshu over on Wednesday, if there were no new cases.

Thailand had been similarly hopeful, saying it could declare victory by the end of this month over a virus that has killed 14 Vietnamese and six Thais.

But on Monday, it said the H5N1 virus had been found in fighting cocks in areas of eight provinces where mass slaughters were carried out and in ducks in one not struck by the first wave of infections, which led to the culling of 30 million poultry.

The infected fighting cocks -- valuable birds hidden or moved around by owners to avoid the cullers -- were found in former "red zones" where the government had ordered the slaughter of poultry within a 5km radius of an outbreak.

Thailand has banned the sport, popular across much of Southeast Asia, until the epidemic ravaging its US$1 billion chicken export industry is over.

But in Vietnam, where another 30 million poultry have been slaughtered, cock fights were held openly in downtown parks in Hanoi at the weekend, even though authorities had ordered the slaughter of all poultry in the capital.

In Ho Chi Minh City, one of the areas worst hit by the bird flu, police detained 13 gamblers last week for participating in a cock fight and destroyed the five birds involved, the southern city's police newspaper reported yesterday.

In Tokyo, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told the Japanese trade minister yesterday that Thailand believed it had brought its bird flu outbreak under control and expected to be able to declare an end in March.

UN health and animal bodies had repeatedly warned affected countries not to be in a hurry to declare their epidemics over because the virus was hard to stamp out.

"Based on our experience in Vietnam and Thailand, we still have concerns that the outbreak is not going to be contained in the next one or two months," the World Health Organization's Kumara Rai said in New Delhi.

It could even take a couple of years to be sure the H5N1 virus was no longer a threat, the Food and Agriculture Organization said.

What scares experts most is the remote possibility the virus could get into a person incubating a human flu virus, allowing it to mutate into a strain that could sweep through people with no immunity to it.

There were fears, quashed quickly by the FAO, the virus had got into pigs in Vietnam, which could accelerate the process of mutation into a strain that might cause a human pandemic.

But a clouded leopard died of the H5N1 virus on Jan. 27 at Kaokiew Zoo, 60km east of Bangkok, and a tiger there is recovering from the virus.

The zoo in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai has quarantined its pair of pandas, one of the world's most endangered animals and its biggest draw, to cut the risk of them catching it.

"Since the bird flu outbreak, we have not allowed the pandas to come out of their shelter and roam around their yard to keep them away from wild birds," zoo director Tanapattana Ponpamorn said.
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