Japanese and Thai agricultural officials discussed Friday a range of issues associated with the Asian outbreak of the bird flu virus.
Hiroshi Nakagawa, head of the Food Safety and Consumer Affairs Bureau at the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, met with Banphot Hongthong, permanent secretary of Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
Banphot briefed Nakagawa on measures taken by the Thai government to cope with the outbreak. Nakagawa demanded that Thailand explain why it delayed notifying Tokyo about the situation, the officials said.
Japanese officials said the Thai government confirmed the outbreak on Jan. 20, but did not notify Tokyo until Jan. 23. Japan is a major importer of Thai poultry.
Officials said the two sides discussed ways to prevent human transmission of the virus and issues related to bilateral poultry trade. Bird flu has been spreading, mostly among chickens, in Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken exporting countries.
As of Thursday, bird flu had hit 32 of Thailand's 76 provinces.
A farm in Yamaguchi Prefecture also suffered an outbreak of the virus.
The Public Health Ministry of Thailand said Thursday the number of confirmed cases of human infection remained at three, including two boys who died.
Spanish orange ban off
The farm ministry said Friday that bans will be lifted on imports of two kinds of Spanish oranges, effective the same day.
Japan had banned imports of the fruit -- Salustian and Clementine oranges -- due to the possibility that they carry Mediterranean fruit flies, but it decided to lift the bans as it has confirmed a way to kill the flies.