Since November, bird flu has occurred in 17 poultry farms in a total of 6 prefectures since infection was confirmed at poultry farms in Kagawa prefecture, and culling was the highest among highly pathogenic bird flu. However, it is expected to reach more than 2.2 million birds.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries believes that overseas epidemics are affecting the background of the series of outbreaks at an unusual pace this season.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza that requires a high level of vigilance, the most slaughtered so far was about 183 in nine prefectures such as Miyazaki and Mie prefectures from 2010 to 2011. It was a million birds.
However, this season, outbreaks occurred one after another in six prefectures, Kagawa, Fukuoka, Hyogo, Miyazaki, Nara, and Hiroshima, and the number of cullings is expected to exceed the record high in one month, reaching more than 2.2 million birds. It has become.
The detected avian influenza virus is a highly pathogenic "H5N8 type" with a high mortality rate, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries believes that there is an overseas epidemic in the background of the successive outbreaks.
Migratory birds carry the virus from the nesting site of Siberia to various parts of the world.
In Europe, it became popular mainly in Eastern Europe such as Poland and Hungary last season, and once it subsided, it expanded to a wide range such as Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Denmark after October, and as of the end of last month 13 Viruses have been detected in poultry farms and wild birds in many countries.
It has also been detected in Japan and South Korea in Asia, as well as in Iran and Israel in the Middle East.
When a national research institute analyzed the virus gene, it was found that the virus detected in Japan was close to that detected in Europe, and migratory birds brought the virus to Siberia, a nesting site, in the summer and overwintered. Therefore, it is thought that the infection is spreading by flying to various places.