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Federal government announces special oversight for avian flu experiments By Carolyn Y. Johnson / Globe Staff

August 8, 2013 Comments off

boston.com

The federal government announced Wednesday a special oversight process for experiments that involve tinkering with a new strain of avian flu detected in Asia earlier this year, but the decision has not come without controversy.

Such experiments, which can produce forms of the H7N9 virus that are more dangerous to people, are aimed at understanding the pathogen that has infected more than 130 people in China and killed about a third of them. Researchers also announced Wednesday that they had seen the first evidence that the virus had spread from person to person.

The knowledge gained from this type of research could help prepare health officials for a potential pandemic and lead to the development of new therapies or vaccines, but also poses scary what-if scenarios, ranging from the accidental escape of a Read more…

Categories: Bird Flu, disease and pestilence Tags: , , ,

40,000 birds culled in Japan at farm which tested positive for bird flu

February 2, 2011 Comments off

Nearly 40,000 chickens were killed Monday at a poultry farm located in Japan after tests confirmed dead chickens found on Sunday tested positive for bird-flu.

The farm located in the southern region of the country in Miyazaki prefecture on the island of Kyushu was the site of where 90 chickens were found dead.

The incident marked the sixth outbreak of the deadly virus in the region and ninth in the country.

Further tests will be conducted to ascertain whether the virus is the H5N1 strain which has caused the most disease and death in humans or if it was a less virulent strain of the avian flu, such as H5N2.

In November, avian flu was found in the western prefecture of Shimane and also has been confirmed in wild birds across the country.

Over the last few days nearly 600,000 chickens were killed in Miyazaki in government efforts to control the disease.

“It’s spreading quickly,” said Koji Saito a spokesman for the Japanese Agriculture Ministry in charge of sanitation of livestock farming in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Japanese Agriculture Ministry officials are reporting the virus won’t affect humans if meat and eggs consumed from infected birds is fully cooked.

This flu season there haven’t been any human infections according to authorities. Typically bird to human infections is spread largely by direct contact with infected birds.

Categories: Bird Flu, disease and pestilence, Japan Tags: , , , , ,