Off the wire
• Fidel Castro to live on in Cuba, says Cuban Five's Rene Gonzalez  • OECD urges New Zealand to tackle economic inequalities  • Internally displaced people begin returning home in northern Myanmar  • China Hushen 300 index futures open mixed Tuesday  • China treasury bond futures open lower Tuesday  • Chinese yuan strengthens to 6.8889 against USD Tuesday  • Chinese shares open lower Tuesday  • Market exchange rates in China -- Nov. 29  • OECD cuts Mexico's 2016, 2017 growth forecast  • S.Korea's business confidence stays low on uncertainties  
You are here: 　 Home

Highly pathogenic bird flu detected in central Japan

Xinhua, November 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Niigata, a central prefecture of Japan, began culling about 310,000 chickens on Tuesday at a poultry farm where highly pathogenic bird flu strain had been detected.

About 40 chickens at the farm were found dead Monday. All five chickens sent for a preliminary test were found positive for bird flu, and further tests confirmed the presence of a highly contagious strain.

Bird flu cases were also found in Aomori prefecture in northeastern Japan. Nine ducks at a farm tested positive for H5 strain of virus, though it is not clear yet how pathogenic the cases were.

The governments of Niigata and Aomori have ordered farms within 10 kilometers of the poultry farms in question to stop transporting eggs and poultry out of the areas.

About 60 farms are keeping about 500,000 birds within a 10-km radius of the farm in Niigata and 7 farms keep over 400,000 birds in Aomori, according to local reports.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed relevant government ministries and agencies to coordinate to deal with the matter.

Japan's environment ministry has recently raised the country's bird flu alert to the maximum level 3, as highly pathogenic H5N6 strain has been found in wild birds in multiple prefectures. Endit