Japan detects season's first bird flu case; to cull 40,000 birds: NHK

The birds are kept in such filthy and crowded conditions that pathogens can easily take hold.

What is Japan’s ministry of Ag doing to remedy these horrendous conditions?

Exactly.

The Minister of Agriculture and his associated staff officials are very busy, thinking of ways to give themselves salary increases and larger bonuses.

Nailed it !

Do they just dispose of the chickens or allow them for food consumption? If they just dispose of them it is a waste, and it if they allow them for food consumption, will price of chicken go down? According to scientists, cooking kills bacteria and viruses in meat.

This is a good article on the politics and science of vaccinating birds against bird flu.

https://www.science.org/content/article/bird-shots-vaccinating-poultry-best-defense-deadly-bird-flu

I would add that seabirds off the coast of the UK are now being discovered that have developed an immune response to the virus that means they survive it.

Egg prices will jump again!

40000 birds and this is the comment. We live in a world with no awareness.

Bird flu news in the UK has gone quite recently and eggs are plentiful in the shops, although for some unknown reason a lot of eggs are now white whereas traditionally in the UK people prefer their eggs to be any shade of brown and free range or barn eggs. The days of caged birds are numbered.

what happens to all those culled birds ?

Not only the birds, but everything that goes with them, including the waste. Since that other stuff gets composted, doing the same with the carcasses is a viable option.

Chickens are kept in horrible conditions, these diseases and the action that follows, are inevitable and unavoidable.

Solution, oh just improve the conditions.... if you want one egg to cost 1000 yen.

There is a reason they are kept like this. It's not like people do this for fun because they enjoy being cruel. This is market forces. Manufacturing food is an issue of scale. Sure, if there are 40 people in your village, and you have 6 chickens walking around free and happy, then some people can have an egg every now and then.

But when there are 8 billion people, eating I dunno, on average 4 eggs a week? That's 1.6 trillion eggs a year. Good luck doing that in a "kind" way.

And what happens to all those culled birds ?

They melt them down into chicken or meat extract (ekisu) that is to be found in just about every convenience food in Japan.

"A test tube labelled "Bird Flu," eggs and a piece of paper in the colors of the Japanese national flag are seen in this picture".

Are you implying it's dangerous to eat Japanese eggs?

"What is Japan’s ministry of Ag doing to remedy these horrendous conditions?"

A very salient and pertinent question, posed by JT member 'kurisupisu', and which I will attempt to answer:

The Minister of Agriculture and his associated staff officials are very busy, thinking of ways to give themselves salary increases and larger bonuses.

The birds are kept in such filthy and crowded conditions that pathogens can easily take hold.

What is Japan’s ministry of Ag doing to remedy these horrendous conditions?

Why do they every time have to kill so many for just one case ?

17 millions killed last year. Any respect for animals ?

Why Covid was detected, we did not destroy ourselves in such a way.

Egg prices will jump again!