Japan Confirms This Season's 1st Bird Flu Outbreaks

Tokyo, Oct. 28 (Jiji Press)--Infections of the highly pathogenic avian influenza were confirmed at chicken farms in Okayama Prefecture and Hokkaido on Friday, the first bird flu outbreaks in Japan this season.

It is the first time for a bird flu outbreak to occur at any farm in the country in October. The earliest outbreak in a season had been the one confirmed on Nov. 5, 2020.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed government officials to be on high alert over a possible spread of bird flu cases and promote quarantine measures.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno asked local governments throughout the country to thoroughly implement hygiene control measures at chicken farms.

According to the Okayama prefectural government, a local livestock health and hygiene center received a report on Thursday afternoon from a farm in the city of Kurashiki that an increasing number of its chickens are dying.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]