On Thursday, media reported that a big number of birds had died at two farms in Kagawa.

Further tests confirmed that they had been infected with the bird flu, which meant that the Japanese authorities had discovered the sixth and the seventh outbreaks in several weeks.

According to the Kyodo news agency, 350,000 chickens would be culled at one farm and 495,000 at another one.

The highly pathogenic H5 flu was first detected at a bird farm near Kagawa’s city Mitoyo, where nearly 4,000 chickens died between November 1 and 4. On November 13, Russia imposed restrictions on poultry imports from Japan over the bird flu outbreaks.