Japan culls record number of chickens as bird flu spreads across 23 provinces

Japan is on a mass culling spree, with nearly 10 million birds already killed this session as the country grapples with bird flu, authorities said on Monday.

Japan has reported a record 56 infections in 23 of the country's 47 provinces this season after the first case of bird flu was discovered at a poultry farm in western Okayama province last October.

"The number (of birds) culled soared to 9.98 million" as Ibaraki province, northeast of the capital Tokyo, began culling around 930,000 chickens after testing confirmed the presence of avian influenza, Kyodo News reported.

This is a record number of birds culled in Japan due to influenza.

The previous record cull was 9.87 million conducted between November 2020 and March 2021, according to Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.