Japan reports another bird flu case

Tokyo -- The highly virulent H5 strain of avian flu was confirmed Monday at a poultry farm in Japan's Okayama prefecture, after dozens of birds died in the past few days, the agricultural ministry said.

It is the third outbreak of bird flu in Japan this month, with the two other outbreaks reported in Miyazaki prefecture.

The 12,000 poultry on the farm near Takahashi city were to be culled, authorities announced. Prefecture officials inspected 15 poultry farms within a 10-km radius from the infected farm but found no virus at those farms.

Bird flu epidemics first swept Asia in 2003 and 2004 when eight Asian countries were hard hit by the poultry plague and then spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2005 and 2006, infecting altogether 40 countries worldwide.

No human deaths caused by the disease have been recorded in Japan.