Japan confirms bird flu in swans

Japan has confirmed that the first cases of bird flu in the country for over a year have been discovered on the southern Kyushu Island.

Tests on four swans on the banks of Lake Towado, about 550 km north of Tokyo, detected the H5 form of bird flu, the government has admitted. Three of the swans had died.

Japan had been stepping up checks on birds after a series of bird flu outbreaks in South Korea over the past month.

Authorities now plan to conduct inspections at farms within a radius of 30 km from where the infected swans were found.

Takayo Yamaguchi, a health official, said: "We will see if proper measures, such as anti-bird nets, are being taken to prevent wild birds from entering the farms."

It is the first time the virus has been found in Japan since March last year, when hawk eagles were found infected with the H5N1 strain.

More than 230 people worldwide have been killed by the H5N1 strain of bird flu, but none in Japan to date.