Japan mobilises army to fight third bird flu outbreak

Japanese authorities have confirmed the nation’s third bird flu outbreak since 1925 at a large poultry farm in Tanba, Kyoto Prefecture, 400 kilometres south-west of Tokyo.

Japanese authorities have confirmed the nation’s third bird flu outbreak since 1925 at a large poultry farm in Tanba, Kyoto Prefecture, 400 kilometres south-west of Tokyo. Officials said a 120-strong Japanese army taskforce has been called in to help disinfect the area hit by the bird flu outbreak. “We are sending the taskforce at the request of Kyoto Governor [Keiji Yamada] to help with disinfection,” said a spokesman at the third division of the Ground Self-Defence Force, as Japan’s army is known. The latest outbreak was spread through the continued shipment of live poultry and chicken meat because of a delay in its reporting by the owner of the affected farm. The Kyoto Governor asked the military to disinfect chicken farms, people and vehicles entering and leaving the cordoned-off area.The Kyoto Government also said preliminary tests found three chickens infected with avian flu at another farm in the town, although the final confirmation would be known until Friday. The small poultry farm with some 20,000 broiler chickens is located almost five kilometres north-east of the Asada Nosan Funai Nojo farm, the site of the town’s first outbreak. Japan has confirmed the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus, which has claimed 22 lives in Asia, was behind the outbreak in Tanba. The strain was also detected in Japan’s first two outbreaks, which were in January and February, but there have been no reports of human infections.(Source: ABC Health News, March 2004)