Related News
Bird flu culling underway in Japan and South Korea
Print Edition
JAPANESE health authorities have confirmed a highly contagious avian flu strain in poultry in two prefectures in northern Japan, with culling of hundreds of thousands of birds starting yesterday at the affected farms.
The government confirmed that the highly virulent H5 strain was detected in birds at a chicken farm in Niigata, where about 40 of them were found dead on Monday. Dead ducks at a farm in another prefecture of Aomori also tested H5 positive.
Culling of about 310,000 birds began yesterday at the Niigata farm and will continue up to Friday. Workers in hazmat suits dug holes and dumped dead birds in them to contain the spread of virus. About 165,000 ducks in Aomori were also being culled.
Officials restricted the movements of poultry and eggs within 3 kilometers of the infected farms. About 60 chicken farms operate in the neighborhood of the affected farm in Niigata, where about half a million chickens are raised. The farm in Aomori and two other neighborhood operators are specializing in French ducks known as “Barbarie.”
Suspected bird flu cases have been found in wild birds in those areas since early this month. Environment Minister Koichi Yamamoto said his ministry was sending experts to the areas for investigation, while raising the caution level to the highest level. The Agricultural Ministry has also dispatched an investigative team to both prefectures.
Meanwhile, South Korea will cull 3 percent of its total poultry population to curb an outbreak of bird flu that has hit a number of farms across the nation, its agriculture ministry said yesterday.
Since a severe strain of bird flu known as H5N6 cropped up on November 18, South Korea has stepped up quarantine measures to contain the virus, including issuing a 48-hour nationwide standstill order for last weekend.
Despite the efforts, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said yesterday that four new cases of H5N6 had been confirmed in central South Korea.
That brings the total number of infected birds to 13 since H5N6 appeared about two weeks ago, according to the ministry.
To contain the further spread of the virus, the ministry will slaughter at least 2.78 million birds, including 1.68 million that have already been culled, the ministry said.
That would be nearly 3.3 percent of South Korea’s total poultry population of 84.7 million.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
