Japan bird flu boss kills himself

By Jonathan Head
BBC correspondent in Tokyo

A suicide note was found with the bodies of Hajimu Asada and his wife

The chairman of a poultry company in Japan that failed to report bird flu on one of its farms has committed suicide with his wife.

The bodies of Hajimu Asada and his wife were found close to one of his chicken farms near the city of Kyoto.

Mr Asada had been blamed for shipping live birds and eggs even after chickens had already died from the virus.

Four outbreaks of bird flu have been detected in Japan, which has banned chicken imports from affected areas.

Suicide note

No one in Japan has yet been infected by the H5N1 avian flu virus.

In their suicide note, Hajimu Asada and his wife Chisako apologised for having caused a great deal of inconvenience to society.

Until that case, the authorities here had been successful in controlling previous outbreaks.

Unlike much of South East Asia, Japan's rural areas are lightly populated, and the local government well-equipped to sterilise and isolate affected farms.

But thousands of live birds had already been shipped from the Asada farm before the bird flu outbreak there was detected.

The local government has now requested help from the military to try to prevent the virus from spreading further - worryingly, two wild birds have also been found to be infected with the virus in the same area.