TOKYO: Japan has confirmed its first bird flu outbreak since 2005, local media said on Saturday.
About 2,400 chickens have died at a farm in the south of the country, including 1,650 on Friday alone, reports said.
"It was confirmed as a case of a highly pathogenic 'H5' kind of bird flu," said national network Japan Broadcasting Corporation.
Authorities have reportedly sanitized the farm, which kept around 12,000 birds in Miyazaki prefecture, some 900 kilometers (558 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
It was not immediately clear whether the reports were referring to the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which is potentially fatal to humans. Officials declined to comment on the reports.
