BUSINESS

1.Monitoring Avian Influenza: The severe case of a bird-adapted strain of H5N1 for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus emerged in Hong Kong in 1994, spurred the frequent transmission from birds to humans, and a number of people had lost their lives to the virus.It was an unfortunate case under Hong Kong’s specific circumstance of the live poultry market.The rate of transmission and spread of bird flu has been low in general, but the case in Hong Kong was a quite rare one and the virus's mortality rate caused a sensation around the world.

PPQC has started monitoring our clients’ environments since 1997, prior to the country’s avian influenza monitoring, with the cooperation of the laboratory of microbiology at Tottori University.Amid such circumstances, bird flu had occurred first time in 78 years in Japan in 2004.We felt the need for a wide range of monitoring, so we have installed an ultracentrifuge to purify the virus, and have been carrying out monitoring bird flu using an antigen we made and tested under strict control environment.

Furthermore, we also have been following the possibility of swans carrying the avian influenza virus on the fixpoints in Niigata, Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures during the bird flue endemic period from November to March every year.

Incidentally, the representative of PPQC, Kazutoshi Shirota Ph.D. has been attending the meetings of relevant sources as a member of the committee on transmissible diseases of poultry and giving opinions in an attempt to reflect the field’s intention onto authorities.

2. Collecting fresh information on new avian diseases: New avian diseases sometimes occur in the field. Many of them originate from baby chicks imported from overseas.We visit these actual sites overseas in an effort to find solutions and discuss with local experts in the relationship as a fellow in the field.In such cases, we genuinely position ourselves as a third party and have a principle to tackle these problems with the purpose of finding solutions together on the scientific level in cooperation with the mentioned authorities. PPQC delivers information obtained in such a course of events to our clients with permissions from local authorities and makes our best efforts for the prompt resolution.

3. Delving into miscellaneous information: PPQC established the research conference in the field known as JPISTRA. In this study group, we pick up the theme which should be focused on as a challenging subject in the poultry industry, and introduce the information we collect at home and abroad. PPQC cooperates with the field by free discussion with the participants of the conference.