Japan culls 330,000 chickens after bird flu outbreak
Japan has recorded its first bird flu outbreak in poultry in more than two years.
5 November 2020
3 minute read
By: Reuters reports that officials are moving to cull 330,000 chickens at a farm site in Kagawa prefecture.
Chickens at a farm in Mitoyo, a city in western Kagawa prefecture, tested positive in a preliminary examination for avian influenza on Thursday 5 November, officials from the agriculture ministry and the prefecture said.
The government will conduct further genetic tests to confirm whether the infection was a highly pathogenic strain of H5 bird flu or a lowly pathogenic one, the agriculture ministry official said.
The farm in question had notified the prefectural government of a suspected bird flu outbreak on Wednesday 4 November. About 3,800 chickens died in the four days through Wednesday, Kyodo News reported.
Japan's last outbreak of bird flu occurred in January 2018, when 91,000 chickens at a farm in Sanuki city, also in Kagawa prefecture, were culled due to the H5N6 strain of bird flu, according to the ministry.
