February 20, 2007

Laos reports new bird flu outbreak among poultry near capital

A fresh outbreak of a virulent bird flu strain has been reported in poultry at two farms near the Laotian capital Vientiane, the World Organization for Animal Health said Monday.

The outbreak of H5N1 in Vientiane's Sisatannak district was detected on Feb. 7, the Paris-based group said in a statement.

The Department of Livestock and Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry reported that 100 ducks at a commercial farm had died, as had 12 birds at a nearby backyard farm where chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons were raised.

The last reported outbreak of the H5N1 virus among poultry in Laos occurred in July 2006, also near Vientiane.

The disease has claimed at least 167 lives worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

Laos has reported no human cases of H5N1, although there have been 25 human infections, including 17 deaths, in Thailand, just across the border from Vientiane.

Bird flu remains hard for humans to catch. But international experts fear it may mutate into a form that could spread easily between humans and potentially kill millions around the world, including in wealthy nations that have so far been spared human cases.