Saga bird flu identified as H5N8, 73,000 chickens culled

The announcement came a day after the Saga government culled about 72,900 chickens at two poultry farms in the town of Arita following confirmation of a bird flu outbreak at one of the two farms operated by the same owner. Workers continued through Monday to bury the culled chickens near the bird flu-hit farm and to disinfect poultry farms in the prefecture. In line with central government policy, the prefectural government plans to finish by early Wednesday, within 72 hours from the time the bird flu was detected, taking steps to prevent the disease from spreading. This was the fifth bird flu outbreak in Japan this winter. The other four occurred in Okayama, Yamaguchi and Miyazaki prefectures, where the same H5N8 virus was detected. The Saga prefectural government announced on Sunday that a genetic test had confirmed a H5 strain of the virus at the farm. The prefecture imposed a ban on the movement of chickens and eggs at farms within a 3-kilometer radius of the two farms, while farms within a 10-km radius were ordered not to ship any products. Meanwhile in Okayama, public health workers have completed culling roughly 200,000 chickens at a farm there. Source: Kyodo