Japan to Cull 180,000 Chickens Exposed to Avian Flu
Date: 07-Nov-05
Country: JAPAN
Tests showed that chickens at a farm in the town of Ibaraki, north of Tokyo, had been exposed to the H5 strain of avian flu, although the virus itself was not detected, an official at Ibaraki prefecture said.
"It is not the case that there were abnormalities, that there was a rise in the death rate among chickens (at the farm)," the official said, adding that although antibodies were found, the chickens apparently did not develop symptoms.
Due to the lack of a virus, it may be hard to pin down the exact strain of avian flu the chickens were exposed to, he added.
A total of 1.48 million chickens have been culled in Ibaraki prefecture between June -- when a bird flu outbreak was first detected there -- and mid-October.
The World Health Organisation has said the H5N1 strain of the virus is endemic in most poultry flocks in Asia and experts say migratory birds, which act as hosts for the virus, could be spreading it.
The virus has already surfaced in eastern Europe in birds, though no human infections have been detected there.
In Asia, though, it has killed 62 people and infected 122 since late 2003. It remains hard for people to catch and is spread almost exclusively through human contact with birds.
But scientists say it is steadily mutating and could acquire changes that make it easy to spread from human to human, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.