Cambodia, Thailand confirm bird flu

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 24, 2004

Cambodia, Thailand confirm bird flu

Cambodia has found bird flu among chickens, a government official confirmed on Jan. 23 evening.

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Cambodia has found bird flu among chickens, a government official confirmed on Jan. 23 evening.

"This is the first H5N1 case found in Cambodia, according to a sample test returned from France Pasteur Institute," said San Vanthy, spokesman for ministries of agriculture and health. He confirmed that the sample of dead chickens sent for France tested positive.

However, San Vanthy said the infection was confined to one farm outside the capital Phnom Penh and there is no people infected with the disease.

San Vanthy urged the Cambodian people not to feel panic as the government has already taken serious measures to prevent the spread of the disease throughout the country.

A statement from Cambodia's agriculture Minister Chan Sarun was broadcast at the state television Friday night notifying the public about the situation and advising them how to take measures to avoid the disease.

It is the first time that Cambodian government admitted that there was bird flu in the country.

Reports of possible bird flu in Cambodia arose earlier this week after more than 3,000 chickens died in several farms of the country.

Last week, the Cambodian government announced to temporarily ban imports of birds and avian products from neighboring countries where there have been bird flu outbreaks.

On Sunday, Cambodia's Takeo province customs officials confiscated seven vehicles laden with 159,000 duck eggs which illegally smuggled from Vietnam. The eggs were destroyed and buried later.

Cambodia became the sixth country or region to report the virus recently following Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.

Thailand confirms two cases of bird flu

Two suspected cases had been confirmed as bird flu infection, Thai Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuthaphan told reporters on Jan. 23 afternoon in Bangkok.

"A seven-year-old boy from Suphan Buri and a six-year-old one from Kanchanaburi have been tested positive for the H5N1 virus," the minister told a press conference

The two boys both lived close to chicken farms in two central Thai provinces and had contacted with chickens recently, said Sudarat.

She said the two patients with high temperature were currently receiving treatment in a hospital in Bangkok, while medical staff gave antibiotic medicine to other patients suspected of being infected.

She also said that there were at least four suspected cases yet to be confirmed except the two boys.

It's the first time that the government admitted the country has bird flu, which had devastated poultry industry in Vietnam, Japan and South Korea and claimed five Vietnamese' lives.

Thailand's Agriculture Ministry was currently carrying on tests over samples from 100,000 chickens on poultry farms to further study the disease.

Since November last year, Thailand had killed more than 850,000sick chickens and the government explained the culling as measures to curb the spread of a foul cholera rather than bird flu.

Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Japan and France have declared to suspend importing poultry products from Thailand.

Japan was Thailand's largest importer of chickens, buying some 270,000 tons of chicken last year, about half of the kingdom's total chicken export.

The European Union, the second largest chicken importer from Thailand, earlier threatened an immediate ban on Thailand's poultry products if the suspected cases were confirmed.

Thailand was world's fourth largest chicken exporter. It shipped out 540,000 tons of chicken worth some 1.3 billion US dollars last year and had a target of some 600,000 export for this year.

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