TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th October, 2022) Japan registered the season's second focus of bird flu on Friday after a poultry farm in the city of Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture raised the alarm over a rapid increase in chicken deaths, Japanese media reported.
A genetic analysis confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza in the dead birds, according to the NHK broadcaster. Around 170,000 chickens will reportedly be culled on the farm.
The first focus of bird flu was detected in in the north of Japan earlier on Friday, with 70 chickens found dead at a poultry farm on the island of Hokkaido. The local authorities decided to introduce a quarantine and also cull as many as 170,000 birds to prevent the spread of the infection.
The two cases constitute the first bird flu outbreak in Japan this season.
In this regard, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged the relevant authorities to get prepared for a possible spread of the disease across the country, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno instructed local governments to fulfill sanitary measures at farms, Japanese media reported.
Bird flu is a highly contagious virus that can cause influenza in birds and result in their deaths. In a period from the fall 2020 to spring 2021, Japan suffered the largest avian influenza outbreak in the country's history. The virus affected more than a third of prefectures, with about 10 million chickens culled in more than 50 farms.
