Japan’s worst bird flu outbreak on record has spread to new farms this week and is now present in around a quarter of the country’s 47 prefectures. Reuters reports that the spread of bird flu in Japan has led to mass poultry cullings. About 32,000 birds will be slaughtered and buried in Sukumo city in Kochi prefecture in southwestern Japan after avian influenza was discovered at an egg farm, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday 16 December. More infected birds were found on two farms in Kagawa prefecture, where the poultry epidemic emerged last month, with nearly 30,000 birds being slaughtered there, the ministry said.
The outbreak has hit 12 prefectures across Japan and a record 3 million birds have been culled to date. Read more