Washington - United States agriculture officials said on Sunday they were optimistic they could quickly persuade Japan and South Korea to drop their bans on US poultry in response to an outbreak of bird flu in Delaware.
"Once we're able to prove it's a localised area and we can show them that, I'm sure they'll reopen up their markets" to poultry from other states, said Alisa Harrison, a US Agriculture Department spokesperson.
Harrison said federal agriculture officials were working with Delaware to contain the disease.
Twelve thousand chickens were destroyed on Saturday morning at a Delaware farm after two birds tested positive on Friday for the H7 bird influenza virus.
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Japan followed South Korea's lead and announced on Sunday it was banning imports of US poultry because of the flu.
US officials said the H7 strain in Delaware was different to the H5 strain that has decimated poultry stocks in 10 Asian nations and killed 18 people.
"There is no evidence to suggest that this is transmissible to humans or that there has been any transmission to humans," USDA spokesperson Ed Curlett said on Saturday.
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