Tokyo, March 6 (IANS). Japan’s Agriculture Ministry has confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza at a poultry farm in Hokkaido. This is the fourth case in the northern region and the 21st case in the country this season.
Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement that the affected farm is located in the city of Abira and houses about 190,000 chickens.
Local authorities were informed by the farm on Wednesday. A rapid avian influenza test performed the same day returned a positive result, which was confirmed by genetic testing the next day. All chickens on the farm will be completely destroyed, incinerated and buried to prevent further spread of the virus.
The avian influenza season in Japan usually runs from autumn to the following spring, according to Xinhua news agency.
Avian influenza is a subtype of virus that infects birds and mammals, and can cause human infection in rare cases, according to the World Health Organization.
The H5N1 virus first emerged in 1996 and has caused outbreaks in birds ever since. From 2020, a variant of the H5 clade caused unprecedented deaths in wild birds and poultry in several countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. The virus spread to North America in 2021 and to Central and South America in 2022.
Infection in humans can cause severe disease and high mortality. Human cases detected so far are mainly associated with close contact with infected birds or other animals and contaminated environments. The virus does not have easy human-to-human transmission and frequent human-to-human transmission has not been reported.
The World Health Organization has warned that even though human cases are rare, the high mortality rate (over 50 percent of cases reported since 2003) makes it a matter of grave concern.