Massive chicken cull begins in western Japan

Massive chicken cull begins in western Japan

KASAOKA, Japan - Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows public workers beginning to cull roughly 200,000 chickens on Jan. 16, 2015, at a farm in the western Japan city of Kasaoka, where a highly pathogenic H5 strain of bird flu virus was confirmed. The cull is expected to take four days.

Massive chicken cull begins in western Japan

Massive chicken cull begins in western Japan

KASAOKA, Japan - Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows public workers beginning to cull roughly 200,000 chickens on Jan. 16, 2015, at a farm in the western Japan city of Kasaoka, where a highly pathogenic H5 strain of bird flu virus was confirmed. The cull is expected to take four days.

Hot water festival

Hot water festival

NAGANOHARA, Japan - Near-naked men cheer and splash hot water over each other in a "hot water festival" held in the pre-dawn chill at a hot spring resort in the town of Naganohara, Gunma Prefecture, on Jan. 20, 2014. The festival reaches a climax when four chickens burst forth from balls hanging overhead. The festival, intended to bring prosperity to the local community, is said to have its origins in a legend that a dried-up hot spring started to discharge hot water again after local residents dedicated a chicken to it some 400 years ago.

Massive chicken cull begins in western Japan

Massive chicken cull begins in western Japan

KASAOKA, Japan - Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows public workers beginning to cull roughly 200,000 chickens on Jan. 16, 2015, at a farm in the western Japan city of Kasaoka, where a highly pathogenic H5 strain of bird flu virus was confirmed. The cull is expected to take four days. (Kyodo)

Prince Akishino co-authors book on chickens

Prince Akishino co-authors book on chickens

TOKYO, Japan - A book co-authored by Prince Akishino about research in China on the domestication of wild chickens will go on sale this week. The 256-page book discusses the research the prince undertook in southern China in summer 1998 as a member of a research circle. The book is co-authored by four other researchers.