Japan has confirmed its first human case of bird flu and said four other people were suspected of catching the disease but none of them have developed symptoms.

The health ministry said in a statement that the four people were employees at a poultry farm near the western city of Kyoto, which took few precautions dealing with an outbreak in February.

Japan also banned imports of poultry from South Korea in response to a new outbreak this month at a farm in the neighboring country where about 9,000 ducks were culled.

The Japanese government has confirmed four outbreaks of bird flu, including the Kyoto case, domestically since January -- the first in the country since 1925.

The health ministry said it had taken several months to determine the human infection because it was being careful due to the lack of established methods to test for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.

Source: CRI News