Japan begins culling 15,000 chickens due to bird flu outbreak

The slaughter of about 15,000 chickens has begun on farms in Gifu Prefecture, in the center of Japan's main island of Honshu, in connection with an outbreak of bird flu. The operation is expected to be completed on November 20, the Kyodo news agency reported. Local authorities have established a 10-km-radius exclusion zone around the poultry farms where the disease was detected. Measures are being taken to disinfect transport, and the removal of chickens is restricted even from those farms where normal sanitary conditions are maintained. This is already the ninth outbreak of bird flu in Japan. ...