08.03.2004

The head owner of a Japanese poultry business accused of covering up the spread of deadly avian influenza among its chickens apparently hanged himself with his wife on one of their farms.
Hajimu Asada, 67, and his wife, Chisako, 64, were found early Monday morning outside a chicken pen in Himeji, about 480 kilometers (300 miles) west of Tokyo, a local police official said on condition of anonymity.
Police found a suicide note saying: "We have caused so much trouble."
The Asada Nosan farm has come under fire for not telling authorities that its chickens were dying en masse in Tamba, Kyoto prefecture (state), preventing officials from containing the disease at an early stage.
Some 18,000 chickens had died of the flu on Asada's farm, and some of the meat and eggs sold, before an anonymous phone call alerted authorities. Eventually, the disease killed 130,000 birds at the farm in Tamba, and the rest of the chickens there were culled.
Asada, also former deputy chairman of the Japan Poultry Association, had faced widespread criticism. He acknowledged that his farm had stepped up shipments of chicken meat after noticing the birds were dying, and Japanese Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei publicly admonished him for acting so late.
The government was considering criminal charges against Asada, and local media reports said authorities were preparing raids on his company's offices.