Avian influenza infection was confirmed among chickens at a poultry farm in Chiba city (Japan's second-largest chicken egg producing prefecture), marking the first such case in the Kanto region centering on Tokyo, the Chiba prefectural government said. Local authorities began culling about 35,000 birds at the farm yesterday and restricted the movements of another 869,000 birds being raised within a 10-kilometer radius of the farm in question.
''This is a very severe situation as damage from the huge earthquake is also serious,'' Chiba Gov Kensaku Morita said at a press conference, referring to the powerful quake that struck northeastern and eastern Japan on Friday. A total of four birds were found dead at the Chiba farm on Friday and Saturday, and a genetic test confirmed that four out of seven birds checked were infected by a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu virus, local government officials said.
Source: IBNlive
