THAILAND: No Let-up on Avian Flu, Officials Told

BANGKOK (Newsmekong) - Livestock officials have been instructed to carry out extensive checks on poultry farms across Thailand and rehearse precautions to safeguard against avian influenza amid fears the disease could make a comeback during the monsoon season.

Livestock Development Department Director-General Sakchai Sriboonsue told the media he had sent letters in May this year to the nation’s 76 provincial governors, instructing them to prepare for further bird flu outbreaks and asking for their cooperation to ensure that provincial livestock officials inspect every square inch of the poultry farms in their areas.

Sakchai said avian flu could make a comeback during the monsoon season, which runs from June to the end of September, and during the coming winter season which starts in November.

Both seasons, he said, are high-risk periods for the bird flu virus.

Apart from ensuring that livestock officials are geared up for further outbreaks, he said that around 40,000 village health volunteers under the Public Health Ministry have been asked to help survey and gather information on the bird flu situation in their areas.

These people know the location of poultry farms in their provinces and where there have been previous outbreaks of bird flu, he said.

These officials have been told to report any cases of the virus as soon as they are discovered, so the authorities can bring the situation under control.

Sakchai said the last outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus was detected was in chicken farms in the lower northern provinces of Nakhon Sawan and Phichit, between January and February this year.

This resulted in 25 people being infected with the H5N1 virus, 17 of whom died.

The outbreak was quickly brought under control by after the authorities culled more than 54,000 chickens in the areas affected. Over 2,500 poultry farmers were banned from moving their animals and disinfectant was sprayed at more than 700 locations.

However, he said the situation was not as severe as the bird flu outbreak that hit Thailand for most of 2004.

The government has also urged consumers to carefully inspect chicken meat before buying and to eat only cooked food.

A retired virologist professor from the Faculty of Medicine at Mahidol University, Dr Prasert Thongcharoen, said those in charge of the prevention of the disease should be on full alert for its comeback. He advised provincial authorities to monitor their farms closely and to notify provincial officials immediately if they have reports of suspicious deaths of fowl in their provinces.

Sakchai said his department is particularly concerned about the possibility of further outbreaks in Thailand’s lower northern provinces. This area has the largest concentration of poultry farms and open-field raised ducks – both crucial areas when it comes to H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Other areas of concern, according to Sakchai, are the three southernmost border provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which have been hit by an ongoing Muslim insurgency.

Preparations to deal with potential for further outbreaks of bird flu in Thailand have also involved NGOs working with the health promotion, added Sakchai. (Kornpan Winwong) (END/IPSAP/NMKG/KW/AC/AN/JS/08)