TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s worst bird flu outbreak has spread to new farms and now affects more than 20% of the country’s pre-47 prefectures, officials have ordered clearing after more poultry deaths.
About 11,000 birds will be slaughtered and buried after avian influenza was found on an egg farm in Higashiyomi city in southwestern Japan’s Shiga prefecture, the agriculture ministry said over the weekend.
The ministry said Monday that another outbreak had begun in Kagawa prefecture, where it broke out last month.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FFO), outbreaks in Japan and neighboring South Korea are two separate highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemics affecting chickens worldwide.
A circulation strain in both Asia and Europe is said to be arising in wild birds.
“The virus found in Japan is genetically very close to the recent Korean virus and thus related to the virus in Europe, which is not currently circulating in Europe,” Madhur Dhingra, a senior animal health official with the FFO, told Reuters by email. .
“That means we currently have two separate H5N8 HPAI epidemics in East Asia and Europe.”
The FAO has issued a warning to African health officials to keep a close watch on farms to prevent the spread of recent European tensions there.
In Japan, 10 of the country’s 47 prefectures have been affected by the outbreak, with about 3 million birds flocking to date, a record number.
All farms in Japan were previously ordered to disinfect facilities and inspect hygiene regimes, and make sure wild birds will be properly established to keep them, agriculture ministry officials told Reuters this week.
Japan has suspended poultry imports from seven countries, including Germany.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Japan lays about 185 million hens and has a broiler population of 138 million heads.
(Graphic: Bird flu outbreak in Japan by prefecture -)
Reported by Yuka Obayashi and Aaron Sheldrick; Edited by Stephen Coates
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