September 24, 2004

Charoen Pokphand Unit In Cambodia Free Of Bird Flu

C.P. Cambodia Ltd., a unit of Thailand's largest agricultural conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, Thursday said its farm is free of the bird flu virus which has infected poultry farms near the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

"C.P. Cambodia didn't cause the deadly virus to spread in Cambodia since it has taken strict preventive measures in its farm," the company's president Sakol Cheewakoseg said in a statement late Thursday.

His comment came after media reports that C.P. Cambodia may have caused the spread.

A farm near the Cambodian capital was closed after about 2,300 chickens died of bird flu. These were the first cases of the disease in the country following an epidemic in Asia earlier this year.

The earlier outbreak of bird flu killed or forced the slaughter of more than 100 million birds across 10 Asian countries.