Sally Furniss
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Japanese court fines poultry farm, execs over bird flu cover up
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/30/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Bird-Flu.php
TOKYO: A northeastern Japanese court fined a poultry company and two former executives 1.8 million yen (US$15,241; €11,415) for covering up an outbreak of bird flu, a news report said Friday.
The Mito District Court also sentenced both former IKN Egg Farms Chairman Taiyo Saito, 67, and former IKN executive Ikuo Eguchi to one year and two months in jail each for not reporting the H5N2 infection, which is not considered dangerous to humans, Kyodo News agency said. Both men's jail terms were suspended for three years, it added.
Police in Ibaraki prefecture (state) — where Yokohama-based IKN operates several poultry farms — had arrested the two men last February on suspicion of having submitted false samples during avian flu inspections the local government conducted in August 2005.
Those inspections came three months into a yearlong bird flu outbreak in Ibaraki that saw prefectural authorities ultimately destroy about 5.7 million birds by last June in the effort to contain the disease.
Ibaraki is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
Presiding Judge Masahito Hayashi's decision Friday found IKN and the two men guilty of violating a law for preventing the spread of infectious diseases among domesticated animals, Kyodo said.
IKN was fined 1.3 million yen (US$11,010; €8,245) in Friday's decision, while Saito and Eguchi were handed fines of 300,000 yen (US$2,540; €1,900) and 200,000 yen (US$1,690; €1,265), respectively, Kyodo said.
Neither IKN nor court official could immediately be reached
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/30/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Bird-Flu.php
TOKYO: A northeastern Japanese court fined a poultry company and two former executives 1.8 million yen (US$15,241; €11,415) for covering up an outbreak of bird flu, a news report said Friday.
The Mito District Court also sentenced both former IKN Egg Farms Chairman Taiyo Saito, 67, and former IKN executive Ikuo Eguchi to one year and two months in jail each for not reporting the H5N2 infection, which is not considered dangerous to humans, Kyodo News agency said. Both men's jail terms were suspended for three years, it added.
Police in Ibaraki prefecture (state) — where Yokohama-based IKN operates several poultry farms — had arrested the two men last February on suspicion of having submitted false samples during avian flu inspections the local government conducted in August 2005.
Those inspections came three months into a yearlong bird flu outbreak in Ibaraki that saw prefectural authorities ultimately destroy about 5.7 million birds by last June in the effort to contain the disease.
Ibaraki is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
Presiding Judge Masahito Hayashi's decision Friday found IKN and the two men guilty of violating a law for preventing the spread of infectious diseases among domesticated animals, Kyodo said.
IKN was fined 1.3 million yen (US$11,010; €8,245) in Friday's decision, while Saito and Eguchi were handed fines of 300,000 yen (US$2,540; €1,900) and 200,000 yen (US$1,690; €1,265), respectively, Kyodo said.
Neither IKN nor court official could immediately be reached
