TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus killed a rare species of eagle, captured within 75 km (47 miles) of sites of three Japanese outbreaks of the virus among poultry earlier this year, the environment ministry said on Monday. Further tests are under way to see whether it is a highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 virus as well as genetic tests to determine its roots, but the discovery has increased chances that the virus has been carried to Japan by wild life. Spizaetus nipalensis orientalis, often called Hodgson's hawk eagle, is an endangered species in Japan. It does not migrate, and eats small birds and animals. The ministry said the adult female bird was found sick but uninjured on Jan. 4 in Sagara village, Kumamoto prefecture, on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu. Japan later in the month confirmed its first outbreak of the H5N1 virus since 2004 in neighbouring Miyazaki prefecture, the country's biggest poultry-producing region. Two other outbreaks have since hit Miyazaki and another occurred in the western prefecture of Okayama. While tests on whether the eagle suffered from lead poisoning proved negative, a test for bird flu was positive followed by a later test in which the H5N1 virus was isolated, the ministry said. The ministry said it plans to resume surveillance of wild birds around the site where the bird was captured. The results of earlier tests for bird flu on samples of ducks and other wild birds taken in areas immediately surrounding the four outbreaks had all been negative.
