A Japanese poultry farmer caught up in a bird flu scandal has committed suicide along with his wife, police said on Monday, as concern mounted that the disease may be spreading after dead crows infected with the avian flu virus were found near his farm.
Hajimu Asada, 67, and his wife were found hanged near one of his company's chicken farms.
His firm, Asada Nosan Co, had come under fire for failing to report large-scale deaths of chickens at a farm in Kyoto prefecture in western Japan and had been blamed after the virus spread to a nearby farm.
The company kept shipping live birds and eggs in February even though more than 1,000 chickens were dying each day at the farm. The authorities were only made aware of the situation by an anonymous phone call.
"The suicide is very sad. But the industry, as well as the government, must ensure the safety of our food, and continue efforts to win back the trust of consumers," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said.
Fears that the outbreak in Kyoto was spreading grew as two dead crows found near Asada's farm tested positive for the H5 strain of the avian flu virus.
An Agriculture Ministry official said it was likely the crows - one found right by the Kyoto farm and the other about eight km (five miles) away - had been infected by the chickens at the farm.
"We cannot completely rule out the possibility that the crows may have spread the disease but, if that were the case, then we would have seen more visible cases of dead crows much earlier," the official said.
The chickens had contracted the H5N1 virus, a type of the H5 strain, a virulent form that has been blamed for the deaths of at least 22 people in Asia.
Experts said the deaths of the crows could be a sign that bird flu may be spreading, following an outbreak of the disease last week at a farm just five km (three miles) from Asada's farm.
All the confirmed cases carried the H5N1 strain, but there here have been no reports of the virus infecting humans in Japan.