# 2839
This morning we're getting a bit more detail on the what they are calling a highly pathogenic H7 avian virus detected in Aichi Prefecture yesterday.
The location is a rather large quail farm near Toyohashi, and this discovery may lead to the culling of 280,000 birds.
Avian influenza antibodies were apparently detected during routine testing of random birds in mid-February, and the strain identified as H7 on the 27th.
No excess mortality in the birds has been reported, which is a bit unusual for a `highly pathogenic' strain. For now officials are assuming this is an `attenuated virulent type of H7'.
Further testing will be needed to determine the N (neuraminidase) type for this virus, and its actual virulence.
This from the Asahi Shimbun.
Bird flu detected at quail farm in Aichi
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/2/27
H7 bird flu was detected at a quail farm in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, the first time the highly pathogenic virus has been found in Japan in 84 years, officials said Friday.
None of the quails on the farm has died, leading farm ministry officials to believe the virus is probably the attenuated virulent type of H7.
The last time H7 avian flu was found in Japan was in 1925, when the virus infected chickens.
This is also the first time a highly pathogenic bird flu virus has been discovered on a farm in the country since the H5N1 virus was confirmed in Miyazaki Prefecture in January 2007 and in Okayama Prefecture the following month.
The Toyohashi farm where the virus was detected holds about 320,000 quails and is a large producer of eggs. About 280,000 adult quails on the farm are expected to be culled to contain the virus.
The farm ministry and other authorities will restrict movements of fowl, eggs and feed within a 10-kilometer radius of the farm. If the virus is identified as being of attenuated virulence, the radius will be reduced to 5 km.
<snip>
The virus was detected after a regular checkup by the Aichi prefectural government on Feb. 18. Among the blood serums of 10 birds collected that day, two tested positive for a bird flu virus antibody on Wednesday.
Additional tests at the farm all produced negative results.
However, after the samples from Feb. 18 were sent to the National Institute of Animal Health in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, for analysis, the H7 virus was identified Friday morning.
