Japan starts cull of 25,000 chickens at bird flu-infected farm
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-06-27 11:38

A cull of about 25,000 chickens began at a bird flu-hit poultry farm in eastern Japan amid investigations into the source of the infection.

"By using our knowledge and wisdom, we must contain the situation as swiftly as possible to be able to declare an end to it," Ibaraki governor Masaru Hashimoto told reporters.

Officials wearing protection suits pick up eggs while preparing to disinfect a poultry farm in Mitsukaido, northeast of Tokyo, June 27, 2005. A weak strain of the H5N2-type avian influenza virus has been detected in chickens at the farm where about 800 of its 25,000 chickens died between April and June, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Sunday. [Reuters]

Officials prepare to disinfect a poultry farm in Mitsukaido, northeast of Tokyo, June 26, 2005.[Reuters]

The agriculture ministry said it believed the infection began around April, resulting in the deaths of 804 chickens at the farm. It said the H5N2 strain of the virus had been detected.

This is the fifth case of bird flu detected in Japan since 1925, after four were found last year. All of the four were confirmed to be the H5N1 strain of the virus, which has killed 54 people in Asia since 2003.

Three of the cases detected last year were in western Japan, where 215,300 birds were suspected of dying of the disease and 59,700 were culled to prevent the spread of the virus.

The other case was at a school in southern Japan, where seven pet chickens died of the virus and seven others were slaughtered.

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