Japanese authorities began culling approximately 50,000 chickens on Sunday following a bird flu outbreak at a farm in the northern Iwate region, according to the agriculture ministry.
This marks the 19th bird flu outbreak of the season in Japan.
The latest outbreak was identified after the farm reported a rise in bird deaths, and tests on Sunday confirmed bird flu as the cause, the ministry stated. The Iwate regional government ordered the culling of 50,000 chickens and imposed movement restrictions on 170,000 birds at two nearby farms within a three-kilometre (1.86-mile) radius.
Additionally, 3.8 million birds within a 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) radius of the infected farm are required to remain confined for now.
Just days earlier, on Thursday, bird flu was confirmed at another farm in Iwate and at a facility in the central Aichi region, leading to the culling of 120,000 and 147,000 birds, respectively. On December 29, an outbreak in eastern Ibaraki resulted in the culling of 1.08 million birds.
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