The veterinary authority sent Follow up Report No. 3 dated 21 December to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The report describes how one swan was found near the wild bird park at Tottori on 4 December. It has been destroyed and the presence of the H5N1 sub-type HPAI virus has been confirmed.

According to the report, an outbreak of HPAI of wild Tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus) was confirmed on 18 December 2010 near water bird sanctuary in Yonago city in Tottori prefecture. The water bird sanctuary is located inside the area of 10km from the infected farm in Shimane prefecture notified on 2 December 2010.

On 4 December 2010, a weakened wild Tundra swan was found. On 5 December 2010, it was sent to the Tottori University. A virus was isolated from the sample on 17 December. On 18 December 2010, it was confirmed that the subtype of the virus was H5N1 by PCR. On the same day, the virus strain was seemed to be closely related with the virus isolated from faeces of migratory wild ducks in Hokkaido in October 2010 and the virus isolated from poultry in Shimane prefecture on 1 December 2010 by comparison of gene sequence.

The surveillance zone was established within 10km around the area where the swan was found. There are five poultry farms (about 119,000 birds) in the zone and no suspicion was reported.

Further Reading

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