Bird flu is suspected to have occurred at a poultry farm in southern Japan, where over 700 chickens died on Wednesday and Thursday, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said late Thursday.

The chicken farm in Miyazaki prefecture feeds around 12,000 chickens which may have infected the disease. It was not clear how many of them have been infected or if there is any human contamination.

Bird flu infections have been found dozens of farms in Ibaraki prefecture in 2005 and 2006, for which at least 5.8 million poultry were killed.

It is feared that the bird-to-bird disease of avian flu currently spread around the globe could mutate into a virus transmissible between humans and led to a pandemic.

Source: Xinhua