Japan finds fresh case of bird flu

A fresh case of bird flu has been confirmed on a chicken farm neighbouring earlier outbreaks discovered in eastern Japan late last month, a local government official said on Monday. An official with Ibaraki prefecture said tests had confirmed an outbreak of bird flu, which was likely to be the same weak strain of the disease that was first found a few weeks earlier.

"It's unlikely to be the more virulent strain," the official said.

He said the latest case shares many similarities with the earlier outbreaks, which saw no drastic rise in fowl deaths that would have indicated the presence of a virulent disease.

The local government has ordered all 8,500 chickens at the farm in the latest case culled. The less virulent "H5N2" strain of bird flu was first found at a chicken farm in Ibaraki prefecture, near Tokyo, on June 26.

It was the first case of the H5N2 strain discovered in Japan.

The government restricted the movement of chickens in a 5-km radius around the farm to prevent the disease from spreading.

The latest farm is located about 1.25 km from the first outbreak.

The H5N2 strain is weaker than the "H5N1" strain found in previous avian flu outbreaks in Japan early last year.

The H5N1 strain, which first surfaced in poultry in Hong Kong and China eight years ago, has been blamed for the deaths of more than 50 people in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.