January 22, 2007

 

2000 chickens culled in northern Thailand due to bird flu fears

 

 

A total of 230 chickens at a farm in Nong Khai, the provincial capital of the Nong Khai province in northern Thailand, died of unknown causes on Saturday, forcing the provincial authorities to later cull some 2,000 chickens at the farm.

 

The area is the Thai gateway to the Laotian capital of Vientiane, just 25 kilometres away.

Nong Khai governor Supot Laowansiri said the change in the weather could be one reason for the chickens at the farm to have died unnaturally.

 

It may take 3 days for laboratory tests to confirm if it is the H5N1 bird flu virus which killed the birds.

 

Movement or trading in poultry along the entire Thai border has been banned after bird flu reappeared in free-range ducks in northern Phitsanulok province, according to Thailand's Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry

 

Deputy Permanent Secretary of Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry Yukol Limlamthong said consumers were worried, but said the situation was "not as bad as reported" in the media.

In coping with the bird flu outbreak, Mr Yukol said the ministry has conducted surveys in all districts of Phitsanulok to find possible spread of bird-flu.

Samples from poultry were collected and sent to lab for testing, he said, adding that the lab reported that only birds from a certain district showed signs of the H5N1 virus.

 

Also, one of Thailand's northern provinces, Kamphaengphet, has prohibited transport of all kinds of poultry after bird flu virus was found in neighbouring Phitsanulok Province.

 

Kamphaengphet Governor Witthaya Phiewphong said the province has prepared provincial public health officials and medical equipments to prevent possible bird flu outbreak. The governor has instructed all districts which share border with Phitsanulok and Phichit provinces to set up animal checkpoints and inform local poultry farmers to confine their poultry until further notice.

 

Provincial public health officials were also ordered to inspect sick and dying poultry.

 

Meanwhile, all five chicken slaughterhouses in Bangkok's Chinatown area may be forced to become markets for meat prepared away from the capital, to prevent the spread of avian flu.

 

Owners of the five poultry slaughterhouses have been told last week that birds might have to be sent to slaughterhouses on the outskirts of Bangkok for slaughter and then sold at the former slaughterhouses.