OITA (Kyodo) The Oita Prefectural Government finished on Thursday slaughtering about 8,100 chickens at a farm in the city of Oita after becoming the fifth prefecture to be hit by bird flu this winter.
The outbreak — the 11th this season throughout Japan — was confirmed Wednesday after 38 chickens were reported dead. Oita borders Miyazaki Prefecture, where more than 700,000 chickens have been culled after the flu spread to seven farms in six municipalities.
About 5,000 more chickens were also to be killed at a meat processing center in Usa, Oita Prefecture, because around 2,000 chickens had been brought to it from the infected farm.