Japanese importer to buy chicken from India amid bird flu fears
elsewhere in Asia

A Japanese trading firm will start importing chicken from India early
next year after shipments from traditional suppliers such as China and
Thailand were banned following a bird flu outbreak, a news report said
Sunday.

Marubeni Corp., which has relied on Brazilian chicken since the latest
round of bird flu hit the region in 2003, aims to expand its supplier
base, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Tokyo last week approved imports of chicken products from India, and
Marubeni will begin receiving shipments early next year provided the
Indian farms meet the company's quality and safety standards, according
to NHK.

Another major trading company, Itochu Corp., started importing poultry
products from Chile and Argentina earlier this year, NHK said.

Officials at Marubeni and Itochu could not confirm the report Sunday.

Japan is looking for new sources of poultry meat after it banned
imports from more than a dozen nations where bird flu has struck,
including Thailand and China. Japan imported about 525,000 metric tons
of poultry in 2004, according to the Japan External Trade Organization.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter
of millions of chickens throughout Asia and killed at least 68 people.

Japan culled hundreds of thousands of birds after the disease hit the
country last year for the first time in decades.

There have been several outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain among birds
in Japan -- and one confirmed human case -- but no human deaths have
been reported.

Most human cases of the disease have been traced to contact with sick
birds. But experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that spreads
easily between people, possibly sparking a global pandemic. (AP)

November 27, 2005

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