January 9, 2025

Japan puts down 50,000 chickens as bird flu strikes

Authorities in Japan began culling around 50,000 chickens on January 5, following an outbreak of bird flu. 

The outbreak on a chicken farm in the northern region of Iwate is the 19th outbreak of bird flu in Japan this season.

The farm had noticed an increasing number of dead animals and the cause of death had been determined to be bird flu, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture stated. The regional government of Iwate then announced the culling of 50,000 chickens.

In addition, 170,000 birds on two nearby farms may no longer be transported away from there.

In total, around 3.8 million birds within a ten-kilometer radius of the affected farm must remain in this zone for the time being.

On January 2, the bird flu virus had already been detected on another farm in Iwate and on a farm in the central Aichi region. As a result, the culling of 120,000 birds started on the Iwate farm and 147,000 birds in Aichi.

On December 29, a bird flu outbreak was recorded on a chicken farm in the eastern region of Ibaraki, which led to the culling of more than one million birds.

- Keystone-SDA