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Seventeen million chickens have been slaughtered in Japan as part of the country's efforts to deal with the current outbreak of avian flu.  That's more than double the number of carcasses produced during the last cull of its kind.

Because of the nature of the disease, the dead chickens have to be disposed of with care... and it seems that finding places to do that is causing a headache for the authorities.

Newshour's James Coomarasamy spoke to James Simms, a Tokyo based journalist about how widespread the problem in Japan is.

"According to one survey... across 26 prefectures, 16 of them have had problems finding places to bury the carcasses," he says.

Photo shows: A chicken in a cage. Credit: Reuters.