270,000 chickens culled after bird flu found at farm
SENDAI: A local government in northeastern Japan finished culling roughly 209,000 chickens yesterday at a poultry farm following the outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5 strain of bird flu.
Meanwhile, the Chiba prefectural government in eastern Japan, which also detected the virus in chickens at a local farm, finished culling 62,000 chickens on Saturday.
The Miyagi prefectural government will bury the dead birds underground and disinfect poultry houses, it said. It initially planned to cull 220,000 chickens but later reduced the number of birds subject to culling by about 11,000. The two governments started culling the chickens on Friday with help from Self-Defence Forces personnel in the latest series of Japan bird flu outbreaks.
“The initial response is the most important thing. We are making all-out efforts in the culling operation,” Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yuji Yamamoto said, adding the central government will closely collaborate with the Miyagi and Chiba governments. Since November, the H5 virus has been detected at poultry farms in Niigata, Aomori, Hokkaido and Miyazaki prefectures.
According to the Miyagi prefectural government, a total of 96 chickens were found dead over three days through Thursday at a poultry farm in the city of Kurihara. Six of them tested positive in a preliminary screening.
In Chiba, a total of 118 chickens were found dead in the same three-day period at a farm in Asahi and 10 tested positive in a preliminary test. Subsequent generic exams detected the highly virulent H5N6 strain of avian influenza in both cases.
Farmers hope the culling operations can be completed as soon as possible so as not to cause any reputational damage to their products.
Fujiko Hatayama, 70, who runs a poultry farm more than 20km from the outbreak site in Kurihara, said: “I hope everything will be fine. There are only a few things we can do.” Early in the morning, she spread lime powder on the ground to help prevent infections.