July 23, 2004

Charoen Pokphand Foods' Chickens Bird Flu Vaccine-Free

Charoen Pokphand Group's chairman and chief executive officer Dhanin Chearavanont confirmed on Thursday that his firm's chickens are not vaccinated with anti-virus vaccine and CP can still export its cooked chickens to overseas markets as usual.

"We don't have to vaccinate our poultry since we raise them for only a period of 40 days and then sell them. Birds, rats and other animals cannot enter our chicken coops because we use the closed farming system," Dhanin said.

He added that CP's poultry raising system is modern and does not need to carry out bird flu virus vaccinations.

He suggested that the government should support poultry farmers and chicken products exporters to export cooked chicken products, the demand for which is increasing.

Thai chicken exporters recently requested the government to come up with effective measures to control the bird flu epidemic.

The government on Thursday admitted that the second bird flu outbreak occurred in limited areas in 15 provinces.