Bird Flu Confirmed at Farm in Japan

TOKYO – A strain of bird flu has been detected in at a chicken farm in northeastern Japan, the government said Sunday, adding that the strain is not considered dangerous to humans.

More than 800 chickens at a farm in Mitsukaido, just northeast of Tokyo, have died since April, and recent tests have found the H5N2 strain of bird flu among them, said Hirofumi Kurita, an official at the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.

The agriculture ministry said the H5N2 strain has not been known to infect humans, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the risk of human infection from H5N2 is likely to be low, unlike the H5N1 strain that crossed over to humans and killed a total of 54 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

Kurita said officials were trying to determine how the outbreak’s origin.

The infected farm in Mitsukaido and all others within a three-mile radius may not ship any birds or eggs until it is confirmed that there are no further infections, Kurita said.

Bird flu returned to Japan last year for the first time in decades, causing the death or extermination of more than 300,000 chickens. Japan also confirmed a human case of bird flu in December, but nobody has died.