Officials in protective suits head to a poultry farm for a suspected bird flu case in Higashikagawa, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo November 8, 2020. (Reuters)

Over 15 million chickens will be culled in Japan this season due to the spread of bird flu, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced on Thursday.

The ministry stated that "this season, when the first case was recorded on October 28, as of 9 a.m. local time on March 2 [00:00 GMT], 77 cases were detected in 25 prefectures. The total number of chickens that will be culled is 15.02 million."

According to the statement, about 243,000 chickens were culled and local authorities introduced a quarantine on bird transportation within a 3-kilometer (1.8 miles) radius.

Experts explained that the migrating birds were possibly the cause of the outbreak earlier than usual this year, which resulted in a rapid spread of infections across the regions.

The Bird Flu caused the price of chicken eggs, already high amid inflation and soaring prices for food products, to spike to its 29-year peak.

The highly contagious virus can cause influenza in birds and results in their deaths. More than a third of the nation's prefectures were affected by the virus with about 10 million chickens culled in more than 50 farms.

Two months ago, a fresh outbreak of bird flu was found in the Japanese prefecture of Gunma, where 450,000 will be culled, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo, using local administration data.

The disease was suspected to have reached a farm near Maebashi, according to the news agency. A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza was identified through genetic testing.

Authorities have apparently previously barred the transportation of hens and eggs within a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) radius of the outbreak hot sites, as well as the export of chickens and eggs beyond a 10-kilometer radius.

The number of hens culled in Japan this season has already surpassed 10 million, marking a new high for Japan. In the previous season, from November 2020 to the end of March 2021, the poultry business suffered the most significant damage due to bird flu, with 9.87 million hens slaughtered and 52 outbreaks in 18 prefectures.