AVIAN FLU / DISEASE RETURNS AFTER EIGHT MONTHS

H5N1 virus outbreak confirmed in Phichit

POST REPORTERS

The eight-month bird flu-free hiatus in Thailand ended yesterday as the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry confirmed a fresh outbreak of the H5N1 virus in the northern province of Phichit.

The confirmation came shortly after poultry farmers and an outgoing senator accused the ministry of covering up the re-emergence of the deadly disease after massive deaths of poultry in many provinces from early this month.

The ministry had repeatedly denied bird flu had recurred but eventually verified the outbreak yesterday.

The Livestock Development Department's lab detected the avian flu virus in a fighting cock carcass from Bang Mun Nak district. This was where almost 300 fowls had been culled after the mysterious deaths of around 30 fighting cocks and free-range chickens two weeks ago, caretaker Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan told a press conference.

Khunying Sudarat, however, tried to ease public concerns over the detection of the bird flu virus.

"Finding the virus in an area that used to be plagued with the disease like Bang Mun Nak district is considered to be a common thing. It would be more frightening if the virus was found in a bird flu-free zone," she said.

Outgoing senator Nirun Phitakwatchara, who earlier accused the ministry of covering up the re-emergence of bird flu for fear the country's poultry exports would be hit, called on Khunying Sudarat to resign to take responsibility for mismanagement of bird flu monitoring and delayed confirmation of the outbreak.

Dr Nirun claimed that local livestock officials told him that the H5N1 virus had been detected over a week ago, but the ministry had covered it up.

"The Agriculture Ministry has once again put export income ahead of people's lives," said Dr Nirun, referring to the ministry's alleged concealment of avian influenza when it first struck the country in early-2004.

He also urged state officials to stop conspiring with politicians in covering up such disease outbreaks.

Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, director of the Livestock Development Department's Disease Control Bureau insisted that test results had confirmed the bird flu outbreak late yesterday morning and the ministry had informed the public right away.

Dr Nirundorn said the virus was unlikely to spread since all fowls in the infected area had been culled from Saturday. .

The department had now employed extreme measures to contain the outbreak, including imposing a total ban on fowl movements in the province and sealing borders to prevent smuggling of poultry from neighbouring countries.

The department had reported the re-emergence of the disease to the World Organisation for Animal Health and major importers of Thai cooked chicken.

The area within a 10-km radius of the infected farm had been put under a 21-day surveillance.

The Public Health Ministry, meanwhile, reported yesterday that an 11-year-old boy from Phichit had been listed as the country's latest suspected bird flu case.

A blood sample from the boy had been sent for testing. Results were pending for another seven suspected cases.

Bangkok Post

Close inspection for bird flu in Thai North

PHITSANULOK, July 27 (TNA) - Following confirmation of the latest bird flu case in Thailand, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan Thursday ordered agencies responsible for bird flu control to intensify their examination for the avian influenza virus in the country's lower North, especially areas having previous experiences of bird flu outbreaks.

The Public Health Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that a young man aged 17 who died in Phichit Province recently had been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus after having direct contact with a dead chicken and not notifying the authorities.

The victim was the first human bird flu patient in the kingdom during the past one and a half years--since February 2005.

Khunying Sudarat, who Thursday traveled to Phitsunulok, where she chaired a meeting of heads of livestock and public health offices from seven provinces in the lower North, said she had ordered a thorough examination and monitoring for bird flu in all vulnerable areas previously affected by bird flu outbreaks.

In areas where poultry die from unknown causes, the living fowls remaining within a one kilometre radius must be culled and samples must be sent for lab tests.

Implementations in each location must be complete within five days from Thursday as in the next two months there will be another risk factor of bird flu outbreak in the region--that is an annual influx of immigrant birds, the minister said.

However, due to the nature of migrating wild birds, areas which are avian influenza-free on one day, can be contaminated the following day.

Meanwhile, the minister said that she had assigned the Agriculture and Cooperatives vice minister and Livestock Department head to remain in Phitsanulok to follow up the bird flu situation and give advice to livestock officials in bird flu-prone areas

TNA

Thailand's chicken exports unlikely to be affected by re-emergence of bird flu

BANGKOK, July 27 (TNA) – Thailand's Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan Wednesday ordered tough measures to inspect poultry infected with bird flu, saying that the new outbreak of avian influenza in domestic chicken flocks should not impact on Thai chicken exports.

Authorities concerned are on alert following the death of a young man from bird flu and the hospitalisation of three other persons in Thailand's northern province of Phichit.

Khunying Sudarat said the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry had cooperated with the Public Health Ministry to investigate the source of the disease, but of about 100 samples from dead chicken carcasses gathered for laboratory analysis, only some lab results indicated the virus was present.

Bird flu control zones have been declared in a 10-kilometer radius.

She said the first bird flu death of a 17-year-old youth in the new round of the outbreak was caused by his touching dead chickens with bare hands when he buried them.

The man did not alert the authorities of suspicious deaths of his chickens.

Under the aggressive measures, 21 at-risk provinces including Sukhothai, Phisanulok, Phichit, Kanchanaburi, Suphan Buri, Nakhon Pathom and Uttaradit, most are in the country's northern region, were declared 'red zones' with the highest level of preventive measures, including a complete ban on the movement of poultry.

Cock fighting can be banned at the discretion of the governor of each province.

Khunying Sudarat said that Thailand had reported the bird flu detection to the appropriate international agencies and projected that the outbreak would not affect Thai chicken exports--especially cooked chicken--as the country had already revealed the facts about the outbreak and the ministry's anti-bird flu measures had reduced the affected areas from 700 locations in the past to 25 sites this year.

Now, the virus has been found present in one location in Bangmoonnak District of Phichit.

The young man was Thailand's15th bird flu fatality since its outbreak in 2004.

Prior to this, the last confirmed human death from H5N1 was last December in Nakhon Nayok when a five-year-old boy died.

Worldwide, the majority of about 130 people who died from bird flu since late 2003 were exposed to the disease from contact with sick or dead birds.

TNA

A Health worker disinfects a chicken farm and its surrounding area in Bang Mun Nak district yesterday.



Reporters and officials look into a pit with 2,500 chickens culled from 12 villages in Phitsanulok’s Noen Maprang district yesterday after mass deaths of fowl were reported in Tambon Bannoi Sumkheelek.