Bird Flu Outbreak: A bird flu outbreak in Japan was identified on Monday at a farm in Izumi City, Kagoshima, with roughly 11,000 egg-laying birds.
Tokyo:
Japan’s agricultural ministry reported on Tuesday that the highly pathogenic bird flu subtype H5N8 was found at a poultry farm in the country’s third avian influenza outbreak this winter.
The infection was identified on Monday at a farm in Izumi City, Kagoshima Prefecture, in southwestern Japan, with roughly 11,000 egg-laying chickens, according to the ministry’s website.
World Organisation for Animal Health has collected reports of various critical bird flu outbreaks in Europe and Asia in recent days, indicating that the virus is spreading rapidly once more.
“The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus’s NA subtype was detected, and it was verified to be the H5N8 subtype,” the ministry stated.
The rise in the number of persons sick with bird flu around the world this year is causing alarm among epidemiologists, especially as the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the WHO, China has recorded 21 human viruses with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza in 2021, compared to only 5 last year, with six people dying and much more seriously ill.
Russia reported the first incidence of the H5N8 strain being transferred to humans from birds to the World Health Organization (WHO) in February. There was no proof of human-to-human transmission at the time.
Following the first incident, Japan temporarily suspended all exports of chicken meat and eggs from all regions; however, the government has stated that consuming those products, if infected, presents no risk to people.
Last year, Japan experienced its worst winter flu season on farms yet, with about 10 million chickens killed and nearly a third of the country’s prefectures impacted.
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