Thailand Gives Official Confirmation of Second Bird Flu Case

Thailand has confirmed a second case of bird flu in less than a week, a senior agriculture official said Thursday.

A senior Thai agriculture official has confirmed the second case of bird flu in the country in less than a week.

The H5N1 virus was found in poultry in the northern province of Uthai Thani, 220 kilometers from the capital Bangkok.

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"A group of about 200 backyard chicken began falling ill and dying on November 3," Sakchai Sriboonsue, director general of the livestock department, told AFP.

"We were notified two days later and the official test result today confirmed that it's H5N1," he said, adding that all suspected poultry had now been slaughtered.

Thailand, the world's fourth-largest exporter of poultry, has slaughtered millions of birds to halt the spread of the bird flu virus, which was last found in poultry in January.

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Since then the kingdom had been declared free of the virus.

Thailand's public health ministry said Thursday that no human-form of bird flu had been found here since the last confirmed case in August 2006.

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At that time there were 25 confirmed human cases, 17 of whom died.

Source-AFP
TAN

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