Japan has begun slaughtering about 210,000 farm birds in northern Hokkaido to contain another outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, an official said Sunday. It is the fifth mass cull this winter in Japan with hundreds of officials working to prevent the spread of the virulent H5 strain, which has been detected at several farms across the country.
Just weeks earlier, outbreaks led to a cull of 550,000 chickens in the central city of Niigata and 23,000 ducks in the Aomori prefecture south of Hokkaido.