November 26, 2020

Japan bird flu outbreak spreads to third prefecture

Japan's agriculture ministry said on November 26 that avian flu has been detected in a third prefecture, Reuters reported.

This is said to be the country's worst outbreak in more than four years.

Avian flu was discovered at an egg farm in Awaji city in Hyogo prefecture west of Tokyo, which is near Kagawa prefecture where the first infections (https://www.efeedlink.com/contents/11-24-2020/4476a5c5-57e5-43c0-8474-069c9ff7f171-a181.html) were discovered in poultry earlier this month.

The 146,000 chickens at the latest affected farm will be slaughtered and buried, while movement in a three-kilometre radius around the farm will be restricted.

The latest move means more than 1.8 million chickens will have been culled since the start of the outbreak.

Just shortly before the latest announcement, the government had detected an outbreak of bird flu on a chicken farm in southwestern Fukuoka prefecture.

The previous large outbreak occurred between November 2016 and March 2017, when a total of 1.67 million chickens were culled due to the H5N6 strain of bird flu.