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Over 4,000 Japanese chicken farms to be disinfected
The agricultural
ministry on Thursday asked 23 prefectures in western Japan
to disinfect local poultry farms raising 1,000 or more chickens so as to prevent
the outbreak of bird flu.
The largest-ever
request of its kind follows a recent series of highly pathogenic bird flu
incidents confirmed in Okayama and Miyazaki prefectures. While the prefectural
governments will decide whether to comply with the request by the Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, there are some 4,000 poultry farms with
1,000 or more chickens in the Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions, ministry officials said.
The ministry envisages the farms being disinfected from Saturday till
the end of February by liming there and in neighboring areas. Prefectural
governments' purchases of caustic lime to kill bird-flu viruses will be financed
by the state coffers, the officials said. Experts believe the viruses are
brought into Japan by migrant birds which are said
to arrive often in the western part of the country.
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