Gov't to strengthen anti-bird flu measures

TOKYO, Jan. 27 Kyodo - The Japanese government decided Thursday to strengthen preventive measures against the continued outbreak of avian influenza such as instructing local authorities to thoroughly examine hygiene management and shields against wild birds at all poultry farms, its officials said.
The government will also make sure chicken farm operators notify the local authorities if they find twice the usual number of dead birds or more, and if their bird nets have unusual openings or breaks, they said.
Farm minister Michihiko Kano will convey the policies to senior officials of all prefectural governments during an emergency meeting in Tokyo as early as Saturday, the officials said.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a meeting with relevant Cabinet members Thursday, ''The government will take all possible measures to prevent birds at farms from being infected by wild birds. We will do whatever we can.''
Earlier in the day, chickens in Tsuno, Miyazaki Prefecture and a dead wild teal in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture, tested positive for avian flu, the prefectural governments said.
In Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, chickens at a poultry farm have tested positive for bird influenza, the prefecture said Thursday, in the fifth outbreak of bird flu at poultry firms this winter in Japan.
The local government first announced the chickens had tested negative but later corrected the view saying that follow-up tests done by the National Institute of Animal Health suggested the birds were infected with a highly virulent H5 strain.
The local government started slaughtering all 150,000 chickens at the farm in Toyohashi while imposing a ban on moving some 2.6 million chickens and eggs at 44 poultry farms within a 10-kilomterer radius in Toyohashi as well as neighboring Kosai in Shizuoka Prefecture.
About 800 birds died between Sunday and Wednesday at the Toyohashi chicken farm and four out of five sampled birds tested positive for the flu, the prefectural government said. The poultry house where the dead birds were found had no windows, denying easy access to wild birds.
Aichi is a major grower of egg-producing chicken. As of February 2009, the prefecture had roughly 7.45 million chickens at its farms, the third largest in the country.
Prior to the Aichi case, bird flu epidemics were confirmed at poultry farms in Shimane, Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, while the virus has been detected in wild birds at several sites.
In Toyohashi, the avian flu virus was detected at quail farms in 2009, prompting the prefectural government to slaughter 1.6 million quails.