Information received on 28 July 2005 from Dr Hirofumi Kugita, Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tokyo:
End of previous report period: 27 June 2005 (see Disease Information, 18 [26], 176, dated 1 July 2005).
End of this report period: 15 July 2005.
Precise identification of agent: low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) virus type H5N2.
Date of first confirmation of the event: 26 June 2005.
Date of start of the event: 24 June 2005.
Nature of diagnosis: laboratory. The affected populations showed little or no clinical signs of the disease.
Details of outbreaks (data corrected and updated):
| First administrative division (prefecture) | Lower administrative division | Type of epide-miolo-gical unit | Date of start of the outbreak | Spe-cies | Number of animals in the outbreak | ||||
| susceptible | cases | deaths | destroyed | slaugh-tered | |||||
| Ibaraki | Mitsukaido city | farm | 24 June 2005 | avi | 24,504 | ... | ... | 24,504 | ... |
| Ibaraki | Mitsukaido city | farm* | 26 June 2005 | avi | 123,975 | ... | ... | 123,975 | ... |
| Ibaraki | Bando city | farm | 26 June 2005 | avi | 8,486 | ... | ... | 8,486 | ... |
* 5 farms
Diagnosis:
| Laboratory where diagnosis was made | Diagnostic tests used | Date | Results |
| National Institute of Animal Health (national reference laboratory) |
- agar gel precipitation test; - PCR(1); - pathogen isolation by egg inoculation. |
... | positive |
| intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI) test | 9 July 2005 | 0.0 |
Source of outbreak or origin of infection: unknown or inconclusive.
Control measures undertaken:
- movement control on infected farms and on farms within a 5-km radius of the infected farms;
- stamping out: all chickens on the seven farms (including the index farm) where diagnostic tests were positive have already been destroyed;
- disinfection of infected premises;
- on-site investigations on farms within a 5-km radius of the infected farms;
- the breeding farms where infected chickens were hatched have been investigated, with negative results.
Vaccination prohibited: yes.
(1) PCR: polymerase chain reaction