Yamaguchi bird flu virus capable of infecting humans: Japanese institute

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 19, 2004

Yamaguchi bird flu virus capable of infecting humans: Japanese institute

The bird flu virus that killed chickens in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture is capable of infecting humans, but its virulence is weak, the Japanese National Institute of Animal Health said Thursday.

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The bird flu virus that killed chickens in Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture is capable of infecting humans, but its virulence is weak, the Japanese National Institute of Animal Health said Thursday.

''With mouse infection confirmed, we can't deny infection to humans,'' the institute said, referring to its recent tests on the H5N1 strain of avian influenza taken from Yamaguchi chickens.

In 1997, the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain was confirmed to have infected humans for the first time in Hong Kong, affecting 18 people and killing six of them at that time.

But the institute said the lethality of the virus found in Yamaguchi is about one-500,000th of the virus in Hong Kong.

In the Yamaguchi outbreak, Japan's first case of avian influenza in 79 years, 34,000 chickens died from the flu or were slaughtered but no human infection was reported.

The prefectural government and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries concluded Wednesday that Yamaguchi is now safe after a serious of control measures, leading the prefecture to lift a 38-day-old ban Wednesday midnight that prevented farmers and residents from moving chickens and eggs within a 30-kilometer radius of the chicken farm where the outbreak was confirmed Jan. 12.

Source: Agencies

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