Japanese gov't says bird flu cull to top 15 million this season

TOKYO, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of chickens and other birds culled across Japan due to avian flu is expected to reach 15 million this season after new infections were confirmed in west Japan, the agriculture ministry said Thursday.

Japan's agriculture ministry said that a new outbreak of avian influenza was confirmed at a poultry farm in the western Japanese city of Fukuoka, which will bring the total number of birds to be destroyed in the 2022-2023 season to 15.02 million, a record high for a single season.

The scale of the cull is already about 50 percent more than the previous record 9.87 million logged during the 2020-2021 season.

The number of outbreaks has also hit a new high, at 77 places in 25 prefectures, the ministry added.

Ministry officials warned that the risk of infection is still high throughout Japan, urging poultry farmers to take thorough prevention measures.

This season's first case of bird flu was confirmed in October last year, with the highly deadly H5N1 strain detected from samples of infected chickens.