Thursday, January 24, 2008

Bird Flu Returns To Thailand's Poultry

 

# 1526

 

 

Map of Thailand highlighting Nakhon Sawan Province}

 

 

 

Thailand's  last reported outbreak in poultry was in March of 2007. 

 

There were no reported human cases in Thailand in 2007, but between 2004 and 2006, they detected 25 cases, with resulted in 17 fatalities.

 

The last reported Thai fatality was in September 2006.

 

Thailand, after a slow start in 2004 and 2005, now takes surveillance and containment pretty seriously. 

 

Thus far, this current outbreak is only affecting poultry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird flu strikes again in northern Thailand

 

Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:24am EST

 

BANGKOK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has re-emerged in a northern Thai province for the first time since March last year, forcing the slaughter of 10,000 chickens, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Thursday.

 

The outbreak occurred on a farm in Nakhon Sawan, 240 km (149 miles) north of Bangkok, where the owner reported 4,085 chickens had died earlier this month, senior Livestock Department official Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk told Reuters.

 

"The H5N1 virus was found on the farm and we have culled the rest of them," he said of the birds slaughtered in one of four closed chicken houses on the farm.

 

The others house 45,000 chickens which had shown no signs of the deadly avian influenza virus, he said.

 

The virus last reappeared in northern Thailand in March 2007, but there have been no new reports of human infections in the country, where the virus has killed 17 people since 2003.