January 27, 2011

Japan slaughters chickens in major poultry farming area

Japan started culling thousands of chickens in the country's largest poultry farming region on Wednesday (Jan 26), to battle with a bird flu epidemic, according to a local official.

The culling of 8,600 chickens in Kagoshima region, on southwestern Kyushu island, followed two separate outbreaks in the adjacent region of Miyazaki, where a total of 420,000 birds have been slaughtered.

It was Japan's third bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm this year, and authorities and farmers worry the disease may spread further.

Local authorities have banned any movement of 5.22 million chickens and eggs kept in the area within 10 kilometres from the outbreak point in Kagoshima region, authorities said.

At the Kagoshima farm, 198 chickens were found dead in one of the farm's four poultry houses in the week to Tuesday (Jan 25).

Kagoshima is one of Japan's major poultry farming regions and produced the country's largest amount of chicken meat in 2009.

In Miyazaki, another major farming region some 900 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, a foot-and-mouth outbreak last year forced the slaughter of almost 300,000 farm animals.