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TOKYO : Health officials disinfected a chicken farm in western Japan on Sunday, the day after it was placed under surveillance as a suspected fresh case of bird flu.
Seventeen more birds were found dead Sunday at the farm in Okayama where 12,000 chickens were bred for eggs, bringing the total number of deaths to 39, a prefectural health official said.
"We will make our utmost efforts to prevent any disease from spreading," Okayama governor Masahiro Ishii told reporters in a televised interview.
The farm is located in the city of Takahashi, some 550 kilometres west of Tokyo.
If confirmed, Okayama will be the third case of avian influenza in Japan this month.
On Saturday, the farm ministry confirmed that a recent outbreak of bird flu in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain.
At least 1,300 chickens were reported dead on the Miyazaki farm, and the government has ordered the culling of the remaining 52,500.
Another outbreak was reported in Miyazaki on January 13 and also later confirmed as the H5N1 strain. Some 3,900 chickens were found dead, prompting authorities to slaughter the remaining 8,100 birds to contain the virus.
The agricultural ministry and local authorities are investigating whether the two Miyazaki cases are linked.
The virulent H5N1 strain has killed about 160 people worldwide since late 2003 and can be transmitted through contact with infected birds' waste.
Health officials have warned that if the disease mutated into a form easily transmissible by humans, it could cause a pandemic with the potential to kill millions of people.
Japan confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in January 2004. Since then, it has seen several outbreaks with the H5N1 strain as well as with the less serious H5N2. - AFP/de
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