TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2022) Japan's Wakayama Prefecture began culling 46,000 chickens on Wednesday amid the second local outbreak of bird flu this autumn, Japanese media reported.
The suspicions of the disease outbreak arose on Tuesday, when several dead chickens were found at a local farm, according to the Kyodo news agency. A genetic analysis confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza in the dead birds, according to the media outlet.
A quarantine has been introduced for the transportation of chickens and eggs within a radius of a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) zone around the epicenter of infection. In addition, the export of chickens and eggs outside the 10-kilometer zone is also prohibited, the media outlet reported.
This is the second bird flu outbreak in Wakayama Prefecture this season. The first disease outbreak was registered at the Adventure World theme park located in the resort town of Shirahama on November 11, as a genetic test confirmed the presence of avian influenza in dead ducks and emus at the zoo.
This fall, Japan registered bird flu outbreaks in the prefectures of Okayama, Kagawa, Miyagi, Aomori as well as on the island of Hokkaido. In total, about 2.6 million chickens have been culled in the country since the season's first outbreak on October 28.
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 the nation's prefectures, with about 10 million chickens culled in more than 50 farms.
