National News Poultry company chairman, wife commit suicide over bird flu fiasco

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KOBE (Kyodo) - The chairman of the company running a chicken farm in Tanba, Kyoto Prefecture, that did not alert authorities to an outbreak of bird flu, and his wife were found hanged March 8.

A 53-year-old female employee of Asada Nosan Co. found the bodies of the chairman, Hajimu Asada, 67, and his wife, Chisako, 64, near the company's head office in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, police said.

They said Asada and his wife hanged themselves back to back from a tree outside a poultry house. They said they found an apparent suicide note on the dining table in the couple's home.

"We have caused a great deal of inconvenience, and we are very sorry," police quoted the note as saying.

The company's Funai farm in Tanba has come under harsh criticism for failing to report that thousands of its chickens were dying. The outbreak was about a week old when it was discovered by prefectural officials who inspected the farm Feb. 27 following an anonymous tip.

The farm continued to sell live chickens and eggs, even though chickens were dying en masse, until authorities became aware of the outbreak.

Kyoto Prefectural Police are considering taking legal action against the firm.

Bird flu was detected at another farm in the town March 3, but no links to the Funai farm have been confirmed. Dead crows tested positive for bird flu March 7 on the premises of the Funai farm and in nearby Sonobe.

The two farms had a combined 270,000 chickens before being hit by bird flu, which re-emerged in Japan in January for the first time in 79 years.

The virus detected at the Funai farm is the highly contagious H5N1 strain. The farm had about 250,000 chickens before the outbreak.

浅田農産会長夫妻、自殺

8日、鳥インフルエンザで鶏が大量死した京都府丹波町の農場を経営する浅田農産(兵庫県姫路市)の会長夫妻が、本社近くで首をつって自殺しているのが見つかった。

Shukan ST: March 19, 2004

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