Thai-Lao Border a Hotspot for Bird-flu Outbreak

BANGKOK — The H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in the Thai north- east bordering Laos, prompting the culling of 310,000 hens after the  virus killed a teenager elsewhere in the country last week, the  Agriculture Ministry said on Jul. 30.

"The lab results confirmed last night chickens from a village in  Nakohn Panom province have died of bird flu," Vice Agriculture  Minister Charal Trinwuthipong told Reuters. "The culling on all 78  farms has already begun and we hope to finish them all by tonight."

Charal said the outbreak in Nakhon Panom, 740 kilometres north-east  of Bangkok, might be caused by H5N1-infected egg trays taken from  "the other side" of the border, in an apparent reference to Laos.

A 17-year-old man died of bird flu on Monday in the northern province  of Phichit, where authorities have slaughtered hundreds of birds and  restricted poultry movement in a bid to stamp out Thailand's first  outbreak in eight months.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Friday the  deadly virus was also found on a poultry farm in Laos, the country's  first major outbreak since 2004. The outbreak occurred on a  commercial farm 25 kilometres south of Vientiane where about 2,500  chickens died earlier in July, according to state media reports. The  same farm experienced an outbreak in early 2004 when the virus swept  through parts of Asia, including Laos where most of its 5.6 million  people live in remote rural areas.

Charal said the ministry instructed governors of provinces bordering  Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to step up surveillance on animals  transferred from these countries — where basic health care barely  exists outside urban areas.

Earlier, Lao PDR Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh issued a  directive urging the Lao people to join hands and fight the bird flu  disease. (Reuters and KPL News)