Japanese authorities began culling around 50,000 chickens on Sunday following a bird flu outbreak at a farm in the northern Iwate region.

This marks the 19th bird flu outbreak of the season in Japan, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The outbreak was confirmed after an increase in bird deaths at the farm, with test results confirming bird flu as the cause. As a result, the culling of the 50,000 chickens was ordered, the Iwate regional government reported.

In addition, the movement of 170,000 birds at two other nearby farms, within a three-kilometre (1.86-mile) radius, has been restricted. Approximately 3.8 million birds within a 10-kilometre radius of the infected farm are also under movement restrictions.

Earlier in the week, on Thursday, another farm in Iwate and a facility in Aichi prefecture reported outbreaks, leading to the culling of 120,000 and 147,000 birds, respectively.

A major outbreak was also confirmed on December 29 at a farm in eastern Ibaraki, where 1.08 million birds were culled.