- TOKYO (Reuters) -- Initial
tests for bird flu at a poultry farm in the western Japan city of Kyoto
produced positive results, after the death of 10,000 chickens there, central
and local government officials said on Friday.
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- "This is a suspected case of bird flu," a farm
ministry official said, adding that further tests would be done to confirm
the results.
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- A Kyoto local government official said three dead chickens
and two live ones had tested positive for the virus.
-
- The local official said Kyoto prefecture first received
reports on Thursday night that more than a thousand chickens had been dying
each day since around February 20.
-
- Roughly 10,000 chickens have died so far, the official
said.
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- The farm holds about 198,000 birds, another official
in Kyoto said.
-
- Earlier in the week, the government of Nagano prefecture
in central Japan also said it was checking on what could be a case of bird
flu.
-
- A Nagano government official said tests had been conducted
on six birds kept as pets, one of which had died in suspicious circumstances.
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- No official confirmation has been made so far in Nagano.
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- Japan has confirmed two outbreaks of bird flu, the first
in January and a second last week.
-
- Both cases were found to be the virulent H5N1 strain
of the virus which has been blamed for the deaths of at least 22 people
in Asia.
-
- There have been no reports of the virus infecting humans
in Japan.
-
- Earlier this month Japan declared an end to the first
outbreak of the flu, which hit the southwestern prefecture of Yamaguchi.
-
- The second outbreak was reported in Oita prefecture on
the island of Kyushu, across a narrow body of water from the site of the
first outbreak.
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