The Shimane Prefectural Government said Thursday it has killed 21,500 chickens at a farm in Yasuki where five birds were confirmed as having the virulent H5 bird flu virus the previous day and is in the process of incinerating them.
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| Coop cull: Animal health workers prepare to slaughter chickens Wednesday at a poultry farm in Shimane Prefecture, where bird flu infections have been confirmed. KYODO PHOTO |
It is the first bird flu infection since February 2009, when a quail farm in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, was infected by another strain of the industry-threatening influenza.
Disinfection is to be completed by early next week while a government lab in Ibaraki Prefecture attempts to assess the virulence of the strain and the farm ministry investigates how the birds were infected.
Afterward, all chickens raised within a 10-km radius from the farm will undergo flu checks for at least three weeks, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said.
If the area turns out to be safe during that period, restrictions on transporting the birds will be lifted.
The prefecture had earlier said there were no abnormalities in a metal bird net inside of a plastic sheet covering the poultry houses and that birds should have not been able to get into the houses. It later noted the net had come loose at one location and part of the sheet had turned at another.
The prefecture suspects the virus was brought by a wild bird as there is a lake nearby where migratory birds gather and aims to identify the infection route in cooperation with researchers from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
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