# 5012
A hat-tip to Makoto and Dutchy on Flutrackers for this press release from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, on the detection of H5N1 in the droppings of ducks in Hokkaido.
First from Mokoto, posted in this thread, the following details.
26 Oct. 2010 press release by Ministry of the Environment Government of Japan
http://www.env.go.jp/press/press.php?serial=13069 at Japanese14 Oct, collect Bard(duck) droppings at a Marsh
26 Oct, detect H5N1 subtype by Hokkaido University
at present, the bird is not dead, limit the entry
spot: "Ônuma" Marsh, Wakkanai city, Hokkaido
http://www.env.go.jp/press/file_view...2&hou_id=13069
2 detected/183 specimens
My reading of the (admittedly terse) accompanying machine translation is that no bird deaths have been detected (not terribly unusual, since ducks are known to be able to carry the virus asymptomatically), and that just 2 of 183 specimens tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
I confess I’m a little confused over the `collection date’ since we seem to have a date of May 14th cited, as well as October 14th.
Machine translations are always a `challenge’.
With a little luck perhaps we’ll get some clarification on these details over the next few days.
