BNATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, Associated Press Writer, :

TOKYO Aug 22, 2005 — Authorities have detected another outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm near Tokyo, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday.

Officials have extracted and identified a virus in the H5 family from chickens at a poultry farm in Ibaraki state, the ministry said in a statement.

All birds at the farm will be culled except for those kept in enclosed poultry houses that were unaffected, the ministry said. Kyodo News agency said about 260,000 chickens would be culled.

The strain involved is less virulent that the H5N1 variety that has ravaged poultry and killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003.

Chickens at two other farms in Ibaraki were also tested and found to be carrying antibodies for the virus, meaning they were infected in the past but had survived.

Birds at those farms would not be culled unless the virus is actually detected among them. Instead, authorities would step up monitoring of those farms, the ministry said.

Although some shipments of eggs and chicken will be allowed, movement will be restricted within a three-mile radius around the three farms while authorities carry out further testing, it said.

Bird flu hit Japan last year for the first time in decades, killing or prompting the extermination of more than 300,000 chickens. Japan also confirmed a human case of bird flu in December, but no deaths have been reported.

An outbreak in June forced the culling of about 94,000 birds at another farm outside Tokyo. It was caused by the H5N2 bird flu strain, a variety not known to infect humans.

In Russia, meanwhile, a top veterinary official called for international financial help in the fight against bird flu which he warned could spread throughout the world.

Yevgeny Nepoklonov, deputy chief of Russia’s agricultural ministry’s veterinary service, reiterated warnings that the birds that are blamed for spreading the H5N1 strain in Russia could carry the virus to Europe and North America next spring.

“Today, this isn’t a problem of a single state … it is a problem of all mankind that must be studied together and that needs consolidated and well coordinated activity,” Nepoklonov told a news conference.

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