Lab Tests Confirm Thai Chickens Died From H5N1 Bird Flu
Lab tests confirmed that chickens in northern Thailand died last week from the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus, an agricultural official said Tuesday. Officials on Monday found that bird flu killed 31 chickens in Phichit province’s Bangmunnak district.
Test results Tuesday evening confirmed the chickens were infected specifically with the deadly H5N1 virus, said Nirandorn Auengtrakulsuk, head of the Agriculture Ministry’s Disease Control Department.
“The report has come in. It is N1,” Nirandorn said.
The new cases are the first found in Thai poultry in more than eight months. Meanwhile, a 26-year-old man and an 11-year-old girl who had contact with chickens that later died are suspected of having bird flu, said a Public Health Ministry statement Tuesday. They have been hospitalized since Monday.
The statement didn’t say if the chickens died of bird flu. Thai livestock officials said earlier this month that they were keeping a close watch for possible bird flu outbreaks in areas that have been hit by heavy rains and flooding, because the virus can live longer in wet climates.
Officials were assigned to help monitor for bird flu in seven “at risk” provinces, including the northern provinces of Uttaradit, Phichit, Phitsanulok and Sukhothai; and the central provinces of Suphanburi, Nakhon Pathom and Kanchanaburi.
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