Bird flu outbreaks cause alarm across Asia…(It’s Back!)
Japan slaughters 300,00 birds as avian influenza also spreads in South Korea
by: Robin Harding in Tokyo and Bryan Harris in Seoul
FT.com
11/29/2016
A stream of bird flu outbreaks across Asia has alarmed public health officials, reviving memories of the virulent H5N1 strain that has killed more than 450 people since the mid-2000s.
apan is slaughtering more than 300,000 chickens and ducks at two widely separated sites in Niigata and Aomori prefectures after birds were found dead from H5 avian flu. This follows culls of more than 1.5m birds in South Korea. The outbreaks highlight the ongoing danger that new varieties of avian influenza may emerge from crowded poultry farms, especially in less developed parts of Asia, and then spread to humans.
“As well as further examining the circumstances of the outbreak, we have strengthened disinfection of areas surrounding the affected farms, and set up sterilisation points on the main roads,” said Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary.
The Japanese outbreak is the first in the country since January 2015, and follows reports of wild birds being found dead in coastal areas. Authorities in Toyko did not immediately identify the subtype of the H5 virus.
South Korea is also on high alert amid an outbreak of the deadly H5N6 bird flu strain, a new subtype that emerged from China in 2014. It is a severe strain that can spread to humans and has killed at least nine people.
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