(JP) Food industry flies into action to put down bird flu flap

January 14, 2004

Food industry flies into action to put down bird flu flap

Mainichi Shimbun

Restaurants are responding quickly to the discovery in Yamaguchi Prefecture of

the notorious bird flu by trying to quell the fears of diners across the nation.

Daiei Inc. has put a notice at the meat counters of its 366 supermarkets across

the nation that reads: " The company doesn't handle chicken from Yamaguchi

Prefecture. "

A Daiei spokesperson said that consumers had not yet begun to shy away from

chicken, but that the company had to allay their fears about infected meat.

Yoshinoya D & C, which operates a beef-bowl fast food chain, plans to begin

selling bowls of sauteed chicken as the company's stock of U.S. beef has been

running low since Japan banned American beef imports in the wake of the

discovery of mad cow disease there.

Yoshinoya officials said that they would soon begin as planned because they

believe their chicken was safe, even though some of it was imported from China

where the bird flu has hit.

But a shopper at a supermarket in Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku said, " I am scared (of

infection), although I know humans can't be infected by the flu. "

Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have said that

they have received no reports of bird flu infection in people who eat chicken

or eggs, although it has been confirmed that a man has been infected by a bird.

The officials announced on Tuesday that the type of the bird flu found in the

Win-Win Farm in Ato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was " H5N1, " the same as a strain

formerly detected in South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Most of the infected chicken on the farm had been being grown in neighboring

Fukuoka Prefecture. Experts believe the chickens had been infected with the flu

hit by birds from overseas.

" I think they were infected through migratory birds because the type of the

virus was the same as one found in South Korea, " said Koichi Otsuki, an expert

on animal microbiology at Tottori University. " The virus spread from China to

South Korea, and it might have hit Japan then. The distance between (southern)

South Korea and Yamaguchi Prefecture is 200 to 300 kilometers, which migratory

birds can fly. "

Yamaguchi Prefecture officials plan to disinfect all vehicles used to transport

animals within a 30-kilometer radius of the Win-Win Farm. Osaka officials have

begun inspecting every chicken farm in the prefecture. (Mainichi Shimbun,

Japan, Jan. 14, 2004)

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