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80,000 chickens culled after bird flu detected in central Japan

Xinhua, January 15, 2017 Adjust font size:

All 80,000 chickens were culled at a poultry farm in central Japan's Gifu prefecture, where the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu strain had been detected, local authorities said on Sunday.

Over 100 chickens were found dead at the farm in Yamagata city in the prefecture. Among seven of those carcasses sent for a preliminary test, six tested positive for bird flu.

The Local government started culling the chickens at the farm Saturday night following the H5 virus was confirmed in further tests.

Governor Gifu prefecture Hajime Furuta and Kenichi Hosoda, parliamentary vice minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, met to discussed how to deal with the situation. Hosoda pledged to fully support the prefectural government.

Local authorities have ordered farms within 10 km of the affected poultry farms to stop transporting eggs and poultry out of the areas, while checking whether the virus has spread to neighboring farms.

Bird flu cases have been reported at farms in Japan's central Niigata prefecture, southwestern Miyazaki prefecture, northeastern Aomori prefecture and Hokkaido since November last year. Endit