December 2, 2020

Bird flu outbreak in Japan spreads to fourth prefecture

Japan's Agriculture Ministry confirmed that bird flu was detected in Hyuga city in Miyazaki prefecture, the fourth prefecture in the country with bird flu as the country faces its worst outbreak of the virus in more than four years, Reuters reported.

The bird flu outbreak was detected at poultry farm in Hyuga, Miyazaki, based in southwest Japan.

40,000 chickens at the Miyazaki farm will be culled, with exports of poultry 3 km from the infected farm to be restricted.

This brings the total number of chickens culled in the country to 1.8 million since the outbreak was first detected in Kagawa prefecture last month.

The last bird flu outbreak in Japan occurred in Kagawa prefecture in January 2018, with 91,000 chickens culled. The last major bird flu outbreak in the country occurred between November 2016 to March 2017, with 1.67 million chickens culled because of the H5N6 bird flu strain.

- Reuters