Bird flu epidemic hits farms in Japan

Japanese authorities have begun culling about 50,000 birds after an outbreak of bird flu at a farm in the northern region of Iwate.
It is the 19th bird flu outbreak of the season in Japan, the agriculture ministry said, AFP reported.
The latest farm reported a rising number of bird deaths, and test results confirmed that bird flu was the cause, the ministry added.
This necessitated the culling of 50,000 chickens there, the regional government of Iwate said.
Iwate also banned the movement of 170,000 birds raised on two other farms within a three-kilometer radius.
About 3.8 million birds raised within a 10-kilometer radius of the infected farm must remain in the zone for now.
Another farm in Iwate and a firm in the central Aichi region were affected by the virus and began culling 120,000 and 147,000 birds, respectively.
On 29 December, an outbreak was confirmed on a farm in eastern Ibaraki, resulting in the culling of 1.08 million birds there. | BGNES