Authorities have detected an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in Ibaraki Prefecture, the agriculture ministry said Monday.
Officials have extracted and identified a type-A H5 virus from chickens at the farm, the ministry said in a statement. All birds at the farm will be culled, it said.
The strain involved is less virulent that the H5N1 variety that has ravaged poultry in Southeast Asia since 2003.