Japan's farm ministry on Friday confirmed the country's first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu at a poultry farm since 2007.
Chickens which died on the farm in western Japan this week had the strain, which differs from a far less virulent type of the virus last found in poultry in central Japan in 2009, the ministry said in a statement.
The farm, in Shimane prefecture, keeps about 20,000 hens for their eggs, all of which have been killed and are to be burned and buried.
Tests on four poultry farms within 10 km (6 miles) of the affected farm were negative, and they will resume shipping eggs on Friday, the ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
