AR-News: (JP) Farm operator may face charges over bird flu cover-up

[A. Sachiko]

Farm operator may face charges over bird flu cover-up
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200403/02/20040302p2a00m0dm012001c.html

The government may file a criminal complaint against a Kyoto poultry farm 
operator for its failure to report an outbreak of bird flu, the farm minister 
said Tuesday.
   
Mainichi Shimbun 

Asada Nosan Chairman Hajime Asada, right, and President Hideaki Asada, bow 
deeply at a news conference on Tuesday.
 
"We would like to place top priority on efforts to get to the bottom of the 
incident while consulting the Kyoto Prefectural Government. I prefer not to 
mention whether we will file a criminal complaint at this stage," Agriculture, 
Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei told a news conference Tuesday.

Asada Nosan is suspected of violating the Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases 
Control Law for failing to report the outbreak of bird flu at one of its 
poultry farms -- Funai Nojo in Tanba, Kyoto Prefecture.

Executives from the company expressed their apologies during a news conference 
Tuesday morning at the firm's headquarters in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, but 
categorically denied it deliberately covered up the incident.

"I'm terribly sorry about causing trouble to consumers across the country," 
Asada Nosan Chairman Hajime Asada, 67, told a news conference. "I thought our 
chickens had died of intestine inflammations. We later suspended shipment of 
our chickens. If we had intended to cover up the outbreak, we wouldn't have 
suspended the shipment."

Asada Nosan's highly suspicious actions came to light on Monday. On Feb. 23, 
the company asked Arinobe, a chicken meat processor in Yachiyo, Hyogo 
Prefecture, to buy all 200,000 surviving chickens at its Kyoto farm, even as a 
massive number of chickens were dying daily, according to an Arinobe executive.

Arinobe agreed to buy all the birds by March 20. However, Asada Nosan has since 
been ordered to kill all the chickens following the outbreak of bird flu.

Kyoto Prefectural Police are paying close attention to the revelations as they 
are considering pressing criminal charges against Asada Nosan executives. The 
company decided on Monday to close the poultry farm in the near future.

Amid growing concern about the spread of bird flu, the government set up a task 
force on Tuesday comprising of bureau director-level officials from the 
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, the Health, Labor and Welfare 
Ministry and other concerned ministries and agencies. (Mainichi Shimbun, March 
2, 2004)