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New bird flu cases found in Thailand
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-12 16:23
Thailand has discovered new cases of bird flu just as it was about to declare
the country free of the disease, a livestock official said Monday.
Bird flu — avian influenza — has been found in fowl in villages in the
central province of Suphanburi, 60 miles north of Bangkok, said Yukol
Limlamthong, director-general of the Agriculture Ministry's Livestock
Department.
"The disease was found in 10 fighting cocks in the five villages where an
outbreak hit last year," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R) meets with
Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo July 12, 2005.
[Reuters] | Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan had planned to declare Thailand "bird
flu-free" on Tuesday, 90 days after the last cases were discovered in another
central province, Lopburi.
In order to boost confidence in its poultry industry, Thailand decided to use
a 90- day waiting period after the last known finding of a bird flu case to
declare the country free of the flu, even though internationally accepted
standards allow 21 days.
Health experts have warned that the disease will be difficult to eradicate
and is likely to re-emerge occasionally, possibly for years.
Hundreds of millions of birds died or were slaughtered across Asia in the
last two years because of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has also jumped to
humans, killing 51 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.
Experts fear that if the virus mutates into a form that could be passed
easily from person to person it could spark a global pandemic, killing millions.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob said he had ordered a ban on the
movement of chickens within a six-mile radius of the new outbreak and expected
to be able to contain the disease.
Barring new outbreaks, the declaration that Thailand is bird flu-free would
be made in 21 days, rather than waiting for a 90-day period, he
said.
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