Bird flu detected in Ang Thong

Third outbreak this year found in chickens

PIYAPORN WONGRUANG & APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL

The Livestock Development Department yesterday confirmed this year's third bird flu outbreak, which was found in indigenous chickens and fighting cocks in the central province of Ang Thong. Livestock chief Pirom Srichan said staff were alerted to the unusual deaths of six of 15 chickens belonging to a villager in Samko district last week.

Staff culled the flock and collected samples for laboratory tests.

The tests showed that the animals were infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, Mr Pirom said.

''The area has been disinfected and put under animal disease surveillance,'' he said.

The fresh outbreak occurred less than a month after the first case in the country's fifth round of bird flu was confirmed on Jan 15, at a duck farm in the central province of Phitsanulok.

The second case was confirmed in a chicken farm in the northeastern province of Nong Khai on Jan 23.

However, Thira Sutabutra, minister for agriculture, insisted that the current round of bird flu was ''much less severe than the first rounds''.

Staff were on standby to contain the disease outbreak, he said. People should still avoid eating or touching sick chickens to avoid contracting the virus, which has killed 17 people in the country since it was first detected here in early 2004.

As the bird flu outbreak moved closer to Bangkok, Governor Apirak Kosayodhin yesterday told staff at animal checkpoints to step up surveillance against illegal movements of fowls.

He said around five million chickens and 27 million eggs were transported from poultry farms to Bangkok each month, and the city had to make sure the shipments were disease-free.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation's director-general yesterday backed the government's plan to vaccinate fowls to cope with major bird flu outbreaks which could trigger an influenza pandemic.

Speaking during a visit to Bangkok as a guest speaker at this year's Prince Mahidol Awards conference, Margaret Chan said she believed the decision was based on good reasons, although the country had not approved the use of vaccines in poultry in previous outbreaks.

''There is no single solution. We have to study the changes in avian influenza as the disease develops,''she told the Bangkok Post.

The national committee on bird flu control, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Kosit Panpiemras, this week approved the drafting of guidelines for poultry vaccination. The committee decided the scheme could go ahead in the event of a major bird flu outbreak.

A ''major outbreak'' is defined as the spread of bird flu from one tambon to seven other tambons in seven days, and continued spreading of the outbreak for two weeks.

Some veterinarians and health officials argue that vaccinating poultry could complicate outbreak detection and control, as it is difficult to identify infected poultry from vaccinated ones.

The newly-appointed WHO director-general also said it was essential for countries facing avian influenza to develop prevention and surveillance systems in animals and humans, based on their own experience, not just what was happening overseas.

Dr Chan also urged the WHO-member nations where bird flu had broken out to send virus specimens collected from patients to the organisation.

The samples would be used in an in-depth study of how the virus changes and the development of a bird flu vaccine for humans.

''We are all losers if we don't know how the virus is changing, without specimen research and study,'' she said.

Bangkok Post
Friday February 02, 2007