Bird flu doing the rounds again in Thailand

The discovery of the H5N1 bird flu virus in northeast Thailand's Nakhon Phanom province near the border with Laos has prompted the culling of 310,000 hens; the lethal virus killed a teenager in the northern province of Phichit last week, the country's first victim this year.

The Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, Adisorn Piengkes, says laboratory tests carried out on over 2,000 chickens which died mysteriously in the Mekong River province of Nakhon Phanom last week found that the fowl were infected with H5N1 virus.

Mr Adisorn says in order to prevent further outbreaks, more than 300,000 chickens in 78 farms are being slaughtered.

It is suspected that the transport of poultry and eggs into and out of the province via Laos might be the source of the infection and that has now been restricted and closer monitoring for bird flu has been ordered for the provinces which border Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Mr Adisorn says Thai authorities will visit Laos for talks on how to cooperate against bird flu outbreaks across the border.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported last week that the deadly virus had also been found on a poultry farm in Laos, the country's first major outbreak since 2004 and they are sending in a bird flu expert to assess the situation.

The current outbreak has occurred on a commercial farm 25 km south of Vientiane where according to reports as many as 2,500 chickens died last week.

The farm also 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.

Thailand has been fighting to control bird flu since late 2003, when it was first detected among the country's commercial chicken farms, which were once a thriving export business.

To date 15 people have died since the virus was first detected in Thailand and at present there are 113 suspected cases of people suffering symptoms similar to bird flu in seven Thai provinces, but health authorities are waiting for laboratory tests to confirm whether the patients have in fact contacted H5N1.