January 26, 2004

Bird Flu In Third Thai District

The bird flu outbreak in Thailand surfaced in a third district in Kanchanaburi's Phanom Thuan, after Suphan Buri's Song Phi Nong and Bang Pla Ma districts, when a dead chicken was found infected with bird flu there yesterday.

The avian flu virus probably spread from neighbouring Song Phi Nong district, said Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob.

Mr Newin yesterday held an emergency meeting with the Kanchanaburi governor to work out an epidemic control plan.

The infected chicken was found among 35,600 samples collected from across the country, he said.

In response, the ministry issued an immediate ban on movements of chickens and ordered all chickens on the infected farm killed.

He said the outbreak in Kanchanaburi was not as serious as in Suphan Buri because there were fewer chickens.

"However, to contain the outbreak, I have told the provincial governor and the district chief to follow Suphan Buri's operation," said Mr Newin, referring to the mass slaughter of birds in Song Phi Nong and Bang Pla Ma districts, where bird flu has been found.

So far, 3,368,902 birds had been destroyed in Suphan Buri, with more than one million to be killed. The number of birds dead or killed in 24 provinces has reached 9,129,125.

Mr Newin admitted the ministry failed to meet Saturday's deadline to have all chicken in the affected area killed because more poultry farmers came to register with livestock officials after learning they were facing bird flu, not fowl cholera.

Farms listed under the ministry's "clear and clean-up operation" had increased from 194 to 602, after the government confirmed the outbreak of bird flu on Friday, he said.

Several hundred agricultural workers and soldiers would finish the mass slaughter in the province today, said Mr Newin, who accompanied Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to a meeting with more than 600 poultry farmers in Song Phi Nong district yesterday.

Veterinarian Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, director of the Livestock Disease Control Bureau, said cooler weather made it harder to eliminate bird flu. "The avian flu virus is hardier at low temperatures," said Dr Nirundorn. "The virus has an average lifespan of three days, but as the weather gets cooler, it might live as long as six days."

Livestock chief Yukol Limlaemthong said the department was collecting chicken samples to test for bird flu virus. So far, about 50,000 samples have been tested. Chicken carcasses which tested positive for the H5 virus had been sent to the World Organisation for Animal Health's laboratory in Paris, which would reconfirm the result.

Meanwhile, Ampon Kitti-ampon, director of the National Bureau of Agriculture Commodities and Food Standards, said avian flu virus might have been here for a while, but gone undetected due to "technical errors" in ministry sampling and testing processes. "It is possible bird flu emerged a month ago, but we did not find it because of mistakes in our sampling or testing," Mr Ampon said in response to claims the government attempted to cover up the presence of bird flu. Yesterday, China and Burma joined a growing list of countries which have banned imports of Thai chicken.