Japan Minister Declares Unusual Situation over Bird Flu

Tokyo, Jan. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japanese agriculture minister Taku Eto said Monday that the country is in an unusual situation over the current spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

“The situation has become unusual,” Eto told an emergency meeting of prefectural governments and industry groups on the day. “There should be no further spread.”

The minister pointed to cases where delayed reporting of outbreaks allowed the disease to spread intensively in the neighborhood. He called for quick reporting of any abnormalities.

This season, a total of 39 bird flu outbreaks had occurred in 14 prefectures across the country as of Monday noon, with about 6.93 million birds culled or to be culled, according to the agriculture ministry.

This month alone, there have been 23 outbreaks, resulting in the culling of about 4.18 million birds. This has already surpassed the 19 outbreaks in January of the 2022-2023 season, which was the country’s worst bird flu season on record. In January of that season, 4.63 million birds were destroyed.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]