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Strain of bird flu found in swans in Japan

A strain of bird flu has been discovered in four wild swans in Japan, after checks were conducted following major outbreaks of the disease in South Korea, local and government officials said on Monday.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 11:11 April 28, 2008
  • Gulf News

Tokyo: A strain of bird flu has been discovered in four wild swans in Japan, after checks were conducted following major outbreaks of the disease in South Korea, local and government officials said on Monday.

The birds were found near Lake Towada in the northern Akita region on April 21, a government news release said.

Three of the birds have since died.

The H5 strain of bird flu was detected in the swans, but authorities were still looking for the highly were still checking whether it was the dangerous H5N1 strain.

No other incidents have been found.

Surveillance measures have been reinforced since reports came in from South Korea in early April.

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