GIFU: The prefectural government of Gifu, central Japan, said Saturday that an outbreak of avian influenza believed to be highly pathogenic has been confirmed at a chicken farm in the city of Minokamo.

It is the first time that a farm outbreak of such bird flu has been reported in the prefecture this season. Gifu thus became the 14th Japanese prefecture to confirm such an outbreak.

All chickens at the Minokamo farm, totaling 68,000, will be killed. The prefectural government will urge farms within a 3-kilometer radius of the affected farm not to move their chickens or eggs.

The prefectural government received a report of a possible outbreak from the Minokamo farm on Friday and obtained positive results through simple testing. Polymerase chain reaction tests conducted later detected an H5 subtype virus from all samples collected from chickens at the farm.

JIJI Press