Bird Flu Found In Thailand

[george]

Suspected case of bird flu found in Thailand

BANGKOK: -- The Thai government's hopes to declare the country free of bird flu was delivered a fresh blow on Tuesday with a new suspected case of the virus that ravaged its poultry flocks earlier this year.

The authorities were anxiously awaiting the results of laboratory tests but officials have sealed off a farm in the central Ayutthaya province where some 7,000 of 44,000 chickens died.

Newin Chidchob, deputy minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives said test results should be known in a few days but added that Thailand was well-prepared to control any outbreak.

"I instructed the livestock development department last night to strictly control transportation of the poultry and impose restrictions not to allow any outsider to visit the farm," said Newin.

The poultry farmer, Veera Sripramong, told local television that he had already been told that it was bird flu, but livestock officials declined to confirm the outbreak.

Veera said he discovered some of his birds were developing the symptoms of bird flu two weeks ago. "The authorities will come to destroy my birds today because they confirmed it was bird flu," he said.

Thailand slaughtered at least 36 million chickens and other poultry and slapped quarantine regulations on affected zones earlier this year in an effort to halt the spread of bird flu, which hit 41 of its 76 provinces.

At least 12 people were infected with the disease, of whom eight died. The four others made a full recovery. The disease swept through 10 countries in Asia and also killed 16 people in Vietnam.

Farming officials on Tuesday declined to comment on press reports that the authorities were due to cull chickens at five farms around the latest suspected case.

Newin said he had already notified Thailand's importers of cooked chicken such as the EU, Japan, and South Korea.

The EU last week extended a ban on importing fresh chickens from Thailand and nine other Asian nations from August to December to protect itself against any possible spread of bird flu.

Thailand's last confirmed case was in May in the northern city of Chiang Mai that officials said may have been accidentally triggered by research on the disease.

Thailand, whose billion-dollar poultry industry was devastated by the outbreak, has planned several times to declare itself free of bird flu following the initial wave of outbreaks in January but fresh cases have scuppered the plans.

--AFP 2004-07-06

[george]

BIRDFLU: Govt confirms new outbreak

Lab tests positive on Ayutthaya birds, as new scares reported in China, Vietnam

Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob conceded yesterday that bird flu has likely resurfaced, after an outbreak devastated the multibillion baht poultry industry early this year.

At the same time, outbreaks of the deadly virus have also been reported in eastern China and in Vietnam.

“But I think it will not be as serious as the first outbreak,” Newin said, following reports of the avian influenza attacking poultry farms in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani.

The results of lab tests on the Ayutthaya chickens confirming the cause of their deaths should be available tomorrow, he said.

Only about 7,000 of the 30,000 chickens raised at the large farm had died suddenly, which was strange as the virus could have infected and killed all the chickens at about the same time, he said.

Yukol Limlamthong, directorgeneral of the Agriculture Ministry’s Livestock Development Department, said he received the reports about the suspected birdflu case on Saturday and alerted the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The governor of Ayutthaya was instructed on Saturday to investigate the reports, as he has the authority to order a mass culling of all fowl within five kilometres of the farm, Yukol said.

Breeder Veera Sriprasong said the authorities waited too long to check whether the birds on his Somkid chicken farm in Ayutthaya’s Phak Hai district had died of avian flu.

“Since my report about suspicious chicken deaths, it took 13 days for the authorities to come back to demand the slaughter of all my remaining chickens. During that time about 600 of them died every day. I want to ask who will be responsible for their deaths. The authorities promise to give financial help for culled fowls only,” Veera said.

Pathum Thani livestock chief Samkan Thammarat confirmed new birdflu cases in Muang district. More than 100 chickens had died gradually over the past month at a farm in Tambon Bangkadi, he said.

“We sent samples of some dead birds for lab tests, which took one week to conclude that they died of bird flu,” Samkan said, adding that all 850 chickens at the farm would be killed.

Governor Wichit Wichaisarn said he already received reports of the birdflu infections in his province and had instructed livestock officials to check closely on Tambon Bangkadi to ensure that the fatal disease would not spread further.

So far, no human infections have been reported.

The country’s frozen chicken exports will definitely take a hit, if the bird flu reemerges, the association of chicken breeders warned.

Chaweewan Kampha, president of the association and an executive with CF Farm Co, said this bad news comes when chicken exports have not yet fully recovered.

“Recently, the European Union extended its ban on imports of raw chicken meat from August 15 to December 15. It could review this in the face of fresh poultry deaths,” she said.

Breeders have reduced their production capacity by half as demand has dropped as low as 11 million carcasses a week, from 22 million prior to the bird flu epidemic early this year.

The EU still allows cooked chicken imports from Thailand.

The ban on raw chicken meat imports was first imposed in late January after the Thai government confirmed the presence of bird flu in the country.

However, Newin said he did not believe the recurrence of bird flu in Ayutthaya would hurt the country’s poultry exports, as the outbreak was in a very limited area and the situation was under control.

The last documented case of H5N1 was the dead chickens found on a university research farm in the northern city of Chiang Mai in May.

The government declared on May 14 that it was all but certain that the country was free of the disease.

Vietnam last week issued an emergency directive urging local governments to prevent a major bird flu epidemic in the wake of new outbreaks in the Mekong Delta.

China yesterday confirmed a fresh outbreak of bird flu. Dead chickens were found on a farm in Anhui province on Saturday, and tests have since confirmed that they died of bird flu, the government said on staterun television.

Since the farm is in an isolated area and the birds were hatched locally, agriculture experts believe the disease was brought to the area by migrating birds, the report said.

The Nation, Agencies

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Rebuke over new birdflu coverup

Agriculture Ministry permanent secretary Banpot Hongthong yesterday attacked the Livestock Department for covering up the second round of bird flu that hit Ayuthaya 10 days ago.

Banpot said he did not understand why the Livestock Department had not reported to him since June 23, when a lab test detected avian influenza in chicken droppings on the farm of Veera Sripramong in Ayuthaya’s Pakhai District. He said he received the report on the second round of avian flu in Ayuthaya from Livestock Department directorgeneral Yukol Limlamthong on July 5.

“The directorgeneral did not report [earlier] to me. Otherwise I would have drawn up steps to stop the spread. If there is another epidemic, exports will be hit. I do not understand why [Yukol] had to conceal anything. I have already reprimanded him,’’ he said.

The Livestock Department ordered Somkid to cull all his chicken within 24 hours. The department also collected droppings from all chicken farms within a fivekilometre radius for testing.

The department also banned the movement of chickens at Lop Buri checkpoint. A fact finding panel is probing Somkid’s farming records, to determine where he bought and sold his poultry and what vaccinations he gave his chickens.

As of July 2, 407,338 chicken farmers have requested compensation to the tune of Bt1.9 billion as a result of the 60 million chickens killed during the bird flu scare. Up to 180,000 farmers have been given compensation totalling Bt1 billion.

--The Nation 2004-07-07

[stumonster]

The news video of the chicken farm showed the chickens being kept in shed that was above a body of water, I wonder if this water is connected to the main waterways?

well maybe chicken will not be part of the new FTA with australia.

[Lioneric]

Hope this time Thailand won't protect it's export market and

let's it's people eat infected chicken .

We already learned a heavy mistake in the past and not stupid enough to

repeat the same mistake.

[george]

Thailand has two new bird flu outbreaks

BANGKOK: -- Thailand has two new outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu which killed eight people in the country earlier this year, Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob told Reuters on Wednesday.

"The lab test results have come out and confirmed that it was H5N1 at two farms in Ayutthaya and Phathum Thani," said Newin, referring to towns near Bangkok.

Authorities had slaughtered more than 8,000 chickens on the farms and the outbreaks in the areas had been brought under control, Newin said.

"So far, chickens have died only at the two farms," said Newin. "We have been monitoring all areas throughout the country 24 hours a day."

Thailand, the world's fourth-largest chicken exporter, slaughtered more than 40 million birds in a bid to eradicate the virus earlier this year.

The epidemic hit many parts of Asia and killed 16 people in Vietnam as well as the eight Thais.

The Thai outbreaks come as Chinese state media said on Wednesday an outbreak of H5N1 on a chicken farm in central China had been brought under control.

Chickens on the farm in Chaohu, Anhui province, about 300 kilometres (180 miles) west of Shanghai, had died of the virulent H5N1 strain and agriculture officials ordered the culling of all poultry within a three kilometre radius.

An agricultural bureau official in Anhui province said the source of the outbreak had been sealed and said migratory birds had spread the virus.

--Reuters 2004-07-07