Japanese not chicken in big cull

– Japan deployed hundreds of soldiers to help cull more than 280 000 chickens yesterday, officials said as they try to contain further outbreaks of a highly contagious strain of avian flu.

The latest slaughter means more than 1.67 million birds will have been killed in a dozen mass culls at several farms across the country since November, when the virus was detected in the northern Aomori prefecture. – AFP