AR-News: (JP) Bird flu sparks chicken-dumping rush

[A. Sachiko]

Bird flu sparks chicken-dumping rush in Saitama
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200403/02/20040302p2a00m0dm010001c.html

SAITAMA -- Over 100 dumped birds have been delivered to Saitama Prefecture's 
central livestock sanitation facility since Feb. 6, as fears of bird flu spread 
across the region, it has been learned.

Most of the dumped birds delivered to the facility were chickens that had been 
reported to police. The majority of the birds had been placed in cardboard 
boxes and in some cases as many as 18 birds were dumped at a time.

A total of 17 police stations had received dumped poultry, police said.

All of the 107 dumped birds that were examined for bird influenza tested 
negative. Tests on remaining birds are being carried out.

Dumping of birds has soared since Feb. 17, when a pet chicken belonging to a 
resident in Oita Prefecture was found to have contracted the disease. Of the 
107 birds that were tested for influenza, 101 of them were delivered to health 
authorities after Feb. 17. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, March 2, 2004)