Sunday, July 30, 2006
Thailand confirms second bird flu outbreak
Thai officials ordered the slaughter of 300,000 chickens after the second outbreak this year of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was discovered on a farm in the northeast.
‘The H5N1 virus was found in chickens in a local farm,’ Charal Trinvuthipong, assistant to the agricultural minister, told Agence France-Presse.
The outbreak at a farm in Nakhon Phanom province, 740 kilometers northeast of Bangkok, follows the death on Wednesday of a boy from bird flu—Thailand’s first such death in seven months.
‘It is the second outbreak (this year) following the one in Phichit province,’ Charal added.
He said more than one hundred volunteers had been deployed to cull about 300,000 chickens near the affected area.
Avian influenza link source::