Bird Flu Spreads in Thailand; China, Vietnam Calm

Thailand’s fresh outbreak of bird flu was spreading Friday, but officials said the deadly virus which ravaged Asian fowl flocks early this year was under control in Vietnam and China.

Thailand’s fresh outbreak of bird flu was spreading Friday, but officials said the deadly virus which ravaged Asian fowl flocks early this year was under control in Vietnam and China.Bird flu has now spread to 15 of Thailand’s 76 provinces since the first recurrence just over a week ago.Officials said they were also awaiting laboratory tests on suspected cases of the H5N1 virus, which killed 16 Vietnamese and eight Thais who came in close contact with infected fowl earlier this year, in eight districts of Bangkok.The fresh outbreak, in what was the world’s fourth biggest chicken exporter before the earlier epidemic, has devastated the Thai industry and hit the stock market, which fell almost one percent Thursday.There have been no reports of anyone in China, Vietnam or Thailand falling ill from bird flu in the latest outbreaks, officials in the three countries said.But the government has put Thailand on high alert, ordering officials to rush anyone to hospital showing any symptoms which resemble those of bird flu.Officials in China and Vietnam said their outbreaks had been contained and no new cases had been reported.”The virus is not spreading. There have not been any new cases,” Bui Quang Anh, head of the Agriculture Ministry’s animal health department in Hanoi, told Reuters.”We are cooperating closely with OIE to evaluate the situation,” he added, referring to the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.Vietnam has confirmed outbreaks of the bird flu in seven provinces and has culled 10,000 poultry, mostly ducks, to prevent the virus from spreading.Thailand has culled more than 40,000 poultry in the latest outbreaks so far, a figure dwarfed by the 60 million it slaughtered earlier this year. In China, officials said 28,000 chickens had been culled and 190,000 vaccinated to contain the H5N1 outbreak.HIGH VIGILENCEChina would release the last group of 114 people who came into contact with chickens at the site of an outbreak and were under clinical observation in the next few days, the officials said.”China has stepped up inspection of border trade between the southern region of Guangxi and Vietnam after poultry samples from the south of Vietnam were found infected with bird flu,” China’s quarantine bureau said on its Web site at: www.aqsiq.gov.cn.Officials in Thailand and China have blamed wild birds, especially waterfowl suspected widely of causing the main outbreak early this year, for the new cases.But the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations food body, said poor hygienic practices were to blame.”Killing wild birds will not help to prevent or control avian influenza outbreaks,” said Juan Lubroth of the FAO animal health service.”To date, there is no scientific evidence that wildlife is the major factor in the resurgence of the disease in the region.”Poor hygienic practices in the production, processing and marketing of poultry, contaminated products and individuals not following recommended control measures were probably to blame, he said. (Source: Reuters, July 2004)