Japan's Prefecture Kagoshima To Cull Some 120,000 Chickens Over Bird Flu - Reports

Japan's Prefecture Kagoshima to Cull Some 120,000 Chickens Over Bird Flu - Reports

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2022) The Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima will cull about 120,000 chickens to stem the outbreak of bird flu, the Kyodo news agency reported on Friday.

The news agency said that 13 chickens had been found dead on a farm in the city of Izumi. A genetic analysis confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza in 11 birds. It is already the fourth case registered in the prefecture.

Over the past weeks, Japan has registered bird flu outbreaks in the prefectures of Okayama, Kagawa, Miyagi, Aomori, Wakayama, Tottori, Kagoshima as well as on the island of Hokkaido.

In total, about 3 million chickens have been culled in the country since the season's first outbreak on October 28.

Bird flu is a highly contagious virus that can cause influenza in birds and result in their deaths. In a period from the fall 2020 to spring 2021, Japan suffered the largest avian influenza outbreak in the country's history. The virus affected more than a third of the nation's prefectures, with about 10 million chickens culled in more than 50 farms.