Japan finds new bird flu outbreak on chicken farm

[RedEarth]

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TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) - Japanese authorities have discovered a fresh outbreak of bird flu disease on a chicken farm in eastern Japan, close to where several cases of the disease have been detected since late June.

Some chickens at the farm had tested positive for a strain of the H5 virus, a local government official in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, said on Wednesday.

Authorities will conduct further tests to confirm the subtype of the virus, the official said. All bird flu outbreaks discovered in Ibaraki since late June have been confirmed as the weak H5N2 strain.

This is a less virulent type than the H5N1 strain found in previous avian flu outbreaks in Japan early last year.

The H5N1 strain first surfaced in poultry in Hong Kong and China eight years ago and is known to have killed more than 50 people in countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T249165.htm

[smirkymonkey]

1. Why do these strains always break out in Asia?

Do any bird flu outbreaks ever occur in other countries? Just curious.

[mike_c]

2. pandemic influenza typically develops from bird viruses...

...that undergo genetic transitions and jump the species barrier to humans, often by way of other species that share diseases with humans, e.g. pigs. Southeast Asia offers ideal conditions for that to happen-- huge domesticated bird population living in intimate proximity to humans, who are themselves densely concentrated, and with slow-to-respond public health services. SE Asia is a flu incubator.

[iamjoy]

3. Overuse of Anti-Virals

I thought some one had posted in another thread said that the U.S. banned the use of anit-virals in poultry, but countries in Asia did not. Thus, this virus developed a resistance to the anti-virals (kind of like bacteria with antibiotics).

But now, it could easily spread