Poultry Killed to Stop Avian Flu Spread

A flock of 12,000 chickens in Delaware was destroyed Saturday in a bid to prevent the spread of avian flu, and state agriculture officials hastened to say the virus differs from the one that has killed people in Asia.

Meanwhile, Japan announced today that it has temporarily suspended all imports of American poultry after U.S. agriculture officials confirmed the flu outbreak at the Delaware farm.

Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said Tokyo took the “precautionary measure” against Japan’s fourth-biggest poultry supplier to prevent the spread of avian influenza.

Tokyo had already banned the importation of poultry from the Rhode Island and Connecticut because of a bird flu outbreak last year.

In Delaware, the chickens were slaughtered on a farm in Kent County after two birds tested positive for the virulent H7 virus Friday, state Agriculture Secretary Michael Scuse said.

The virus is different from the H5N1 virus in Asia, Scuse said. That strain has forced the slaughter of millions of birds there and killed 18 people in Thailand and Vietnam who had come into direct contact with them.

“The virus that is in Asia is a mutation of H5,” Scuse said. He said the H7 strain found in Delaware is fatal to poultry but does not transmit to humans.

Scuse said he was “fairly confident” the virus had not spread in Delaware. As a safeguard, however, other flocks within a two-mile radius of the infected farm would be tested, and the outcome of that process would probably be known by Tuesday, he said.

If the virus is found in other flocks, the testing area would be extended to five miles, he said.

The slain flock’s carcasses will be composted at the farm, he said.

Poultry is a multibillion-dollar industry in the area where the infected farm is located, and is the mainstay of the local economy.