JAPAN. Tokyo: The agriculture ministry confirmed on Monday that the fifth Japanese prefecture has been hit by bird flu. A wave of infections at poultry farms spark Japan’s worst outbreak in four years.
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Nara Prefecture in Japan reported its first case of Avian influenza of the year on Sunday. Marking the 16th case of the year nationwide. The outbreak was reported from a chicken farm in the city of Gojo. Among other cases, 10 were reported from the western prefecture of Kagawa. Whereas, three were from the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki and one each from Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures.
The ministry mentioned on its website that the highly pathogenic influenza was discovered at two egg-producing farms in the Hiroshima prefecture of southwestern Japan. The website also mentioned humans cannot contract the flu through eggs and poultry.
The outbreak started last month in Kagawa prefecture on Shikoku Island of Japan.
However, to prevent further spread, over 130,000 chickens at two farms in Mihara city will be slaughtered and buried. Export restrictions have been imposed in 3km radius around the farm.
Japan saw its last bird flu outbreak in January 2018 in the Kagawa prefecture. November 2016 and March 2017 saw a bigger outbreak when a total of 1.67 million chickens were slaughtered.
Bird flu outbreak has been reported from several countries including South Korea which led to the culling of 400,000 chickens and ducks.
The European poultry industry is also on alert as a contagious bird flu deadly to animals is spreading rapidly in the continent.
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