Thailand confirms new bird flu outbreak
Posted: 01 February 2007 1555 hrs

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BANGKOK : Thai livestock officials Thursday confirmed the country's third outbreak of bird flu this year, saying they had detected the deadly H5N1 virus among chickens in the country's central Angthong province.

"The results of laboratory tests today confirmed that it's the H5N1 virus, found in 10 chickens raised by small farmers, some for cock fighting," a livestock department official said.

"Those chickens were slaughtered on January 24," she added.

Thailand reported its first outbreak of the year on January 15, after finding the virus in ducks in the central province of Phitsanulok.

The second outbreak was found a week ago in northeastern Nong Khai province.

Thailand has been among the countries hardest hit by the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, recording 25 human cases, 17 of them fatal, since the outbreak began here in 2004.

The last bird flu fatality was in August last year, when a 59-year-old farmer in northeastern Thailand succumbed to the virus.

Thailand was criticized for being slow to respond to the outbreak of bird flu but now is considered one of the countries best prepared to battle the disease.

Thailand has stockpiled 1.5 million capsules of the anti-viral drug oseltamvir, a generic version of the drug Tamiflu, which the kingdom began producing last year.

Bird flu has badly hurt Thailand's poultry industry, once the world's biggest, after countries slapped bans on raw Thai chicken after the 2004 outbreak.

Thailand, the world's fourth-largest exporter of poultry, now only exports cooked chicken. - AFP/ch