January 16, 2004

WHO To Unravel Bird Flu Mystery in Thailand Next Week

World Health Organisation experts will arrive next week in Thailand to conduct tests on dead chickens, to confirm if the poultry deaths in the country are bird flu related.

The visit should prove once and for all that there is no bird flu in Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.

The rumour of a bird flu outbreak in Thailand was started by candidates in a local election fighting a fierce campaign, he said.

On Wednesday, Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob also insisted Thailand was free of bird flu. He said farmers and local politicians who claimed their chickens were infected with the disease were merely trying to milk the state for compensation.

Mr Newin said 100,000 chickens in Nakhon Sawan, Chachoengsao and Suphan Buri provinces had died of respiratory disease, cold weather and chicken cholera, and another 300,000 healthy birds had been slaughtered to contain the outbreak.

Mr Thaksin insisted Thai chickens were safe to eat.

WHO representatives would arrive in Thailand next week to examine dead chickens and he was confident they would find the birds died of cholera, not bird flu.

Health and livestock officials were monitoring the problem carefully and reporting regularly, Mr Thaksin said. Poultry raisers who had a problem could dial 1111 for help.

However, the Consumer Power Association of Thailand yesterday called on the government to tell the truth, so the people could prepare to brace for an epidemic which could be worse than Sars.

In an appeal made through the House consumer protection panel, the association claimed bird flu had begun spreading in Thailand late last year and was now a serious problem in Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Pathom, Suphan Buri and Chachoengsao provinces.

The association urged the government to care more about the people than the economy and tourism.

Major chicken raisers in Ayutthaya and Chachoengsao yesterday denied bird flu was spreading in the two provinces.

Saneh Kannasut, owner of Kannasut Farm in Ayutthaya's Bang Pa-in district - one of the country's largest egg farms - said he employed strict preventive measures and his operation was free of all diseases, including chicken cholera which killed birds on farms in the province's Bang Sai, Sena, Phak Hai and Bang Ban districts.

Manoj Chuthabtim, chairman of Paed Riew Egg Chicken Cooperative in Chachoengsao, said many chickens normally died in winter, not as a result of a major epidemic but because the changed weather caused respiratory disease.

The Livestock Department was closely watching the situation and advising farmers how to control any diseases.

The price of eggs in Chachoengsao remained stable at 1.90 baht each.

On Wednesday, United Nations experts warned that a bird flu outbreak which has killed several people in Vietnam was potentially more deadly than Sars.