By Xinhua
Bangkok : A new bird flu outbreak has been detected at a farm in Thailand’s lower northern province Nakhon Sawan, but no human infection was found by far, Thai livestock officials said Thursday.
Laboratory tests have found the H5N1 virus in dead chicken samples from a farm in Chumsaeng district, Nakhon Sawan Jan 22, according to Sakchai Sriboonsue, director-general of Thailand’s Livestock Development Department, the Thai News Agency said.
Hundreds of chickens died Jan 18 at the Sri Thai Farm and the farm owner informed local animal husbandry officials to collect samples of dead chickens for lab tests.
Nearly 10,000 chickens at the farm were culled on Jan 22 and disinfectant was sprayed throughout nearby areas.
Sakchai, while travelling to the infected chicken farm, said that some 60,000 birds raised in all the four breeding buildings at the farm would be culled Thursday, and all poultry within a 10-km radius were forbidden to be moved for at least 30 days.
The last big outbreak of bird flu in the country was reported in March 2007 in northeastern province of Mukdahan bordering Laos.
The latest wave of bird flu outbreaks in Thailand since 2004 has seen 25 people infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, 17 of whom died.