Japan deployed hundreds of soldiers to help cull more than 280,000 chickens today to try to contain further outbreaks of a highly contagious strain of avian flu.<br/><br/>Officials said, the latest slaughter means more than 1.67 million birds will be killed in a dozen mass culls at several farms across the country since November when the virus was detected in the northern Aomori prefecture.<br/><br/>Troops have been sent to a farm in Miyagi prefecture in the northeast where about 220,000 birds are to be killed, and to a property southeast of Tokyo where 68,000 chickens will be destroyed.