Latest outbreak in red
# 1569
Thailand, which was caught flat-footed back in 2004-2005 when the H5N1 virus first began to affect their nation, has adopted a far more proactive stance in recent years.
After enduring 25 human cases, and 17 deaths over two years, they've managed to go since mid-2006 without a reported human infection, and they've dealt swiftly with sporadic outbreaks in poultry.
Over the past couple of weeks Thailand has seen three provinces report bird deaths, and the H5N1 virus has been confirmed in at least two of them. Swift culling was ordered, even before testing was complete.
Now farmers are reporting chicken deaths in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, and culling is being done while tests are preformed.
This from Xinhua News.
Thai northeastern province on high alert of bird flu
www.chinaview.cn
2008-01-30 16:45:48
BANGKOK, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Health officials from Thailand's northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima Province Wednesday are on high alert for the bird flu virus after dozens of chickens were reported to have died mysteriously at a local farm.
Orders were issued to chicken farmers in all 3,712 villages in the northeastern province to carry out tests at their farms to locate the virus and to spray disinfectants, according to the report of the Bangkok Post website.
Livestock department in Nakhon Ratchasima said 21 chickens were said to have died on January 28 at a farm in Non Thai district.
Samples of faeces taken from the farm where the chicken died are being examined by health experts to confirm whether the chickens died of the H5N1 virus.
Chickens within a five-kilometer radius of the farm have also been culled as a preventative measure.
Since early 2008, bird flu broke out in Thailand's northern provinces of Nakhon Sawan and Phichit, thousands of chickens have been culled. But no human infection has been found so far.
Bird flu outbreaks have plagued Thailand during the past years. The most recent big outbreak was reported in March 2007 in northeastern province of Mukdahan bordering Laos.
The latest wave of bird flu outbreaks in Thailand since 2004 has seen 25 people infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, 17 died.
