July 22, 2004

New Bird Flu Cases In 2 More Thai Provinces

Thailand confirmed bird flu recurrence in two more provinces on Wednesday, bringing the number of provinces having the second round of outbreak to 13, according to an Agriculture Ministry statement.

The avian influenza apparently rebounded in the two central provinces of Ang Thong and Chonburi lying close to Bangkok.

Since the beginning of this month, 13 provinces including the capital Bangkok have reported a resurgence of the fowl flu that hit Asia hard earlier this year.

Thailand, which culled an estimated total of some 50-60 million birds in the first round of the epidemic, has come up with a series of measures to deal with the new outbreak.

A national committee has been set up to take care of related issues, while the government decided to carry on vaccine experiments so as to reduce the loss of poultry farmers in the face of bird flu.

However, the European Union (EU), one of the major importers of Thailand's poultry products, said that it would ban Thailand's exports if vaccination was implemented.

Thailand, the world's fourth largest poultry exporter, suffered a loss of no less than 880 million US dollars in the first wave of bird flu crisis earlier this year.  Major buyers such as Japan and EU subsequently stopped imports from Thailand.