Japan to cull 77,000 chickens over new bird flu outbreak in Tochigi

Some 77,000 chickens will be culled in the Japanese prefecture of Tochigi due to a new outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

According to the news, a quarantine zone was established within a 3-kilometre (1.9 miles) radius from the affected farm and a ban on the export of eggs and poultry products was introduced within a 10-kilometre range.

In January, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said that the new outbreak of avian influenza, which started in November, has broken all records in terms of the number of chickens culled in one season. Seventeen out of Japan's 47 prefectures were affected by the outbreak.

Bird flu outbreaks have also been detected in the prefectures of Chiba, Kagawa, Fukuoka, Hyogo, Miyazaki, Hiroshima, Nara, Oita, Wakayama, Okayama, Shiga, Kochi, Tokushima, Gifu, Kagoshima, Toyama and Ibaraki. According to the Ministry for Agriculture, some 9.7 million domestic birds have already been exterminated to prevent the spread of the disease. (/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )