From Sydney Morning Herald
By Justin Norrie

Japanese scientists fear that rats were responsible for carrying avian flu into four poultry farms over the past month, in an alarming development that suggests the virus could spread more quickly than realised.

A team of government-appointed specialists who inspected the farms in the Miyazaki and Okayama prefectures, in the country’s south, believes that rodents infected by wild ducks from China may have been carrying the highly virulent H5N1 virus strain.

At all of the farms they found nets and coverings in place to prevent large migratory birds from coming into contact with the poultry. At three of the farms they found scores of dead chickens in areas furthest from the entrance of the coops, leading inspectors to believe that wild birds were not the direct source of the infection.

Toshihiro Ito, a professor of veterinary microbiology at Tottori University, who heads the team of specialists, told the Asahi Shimbun: “It’s possible that small rodents, such as rats, carried the virus into the chicken coops.”

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