Cambodia: Outbreak of bird flu

2004-09-22 11:04

Phnom Penh - Cambodia has detected its first new outbreak of bird flu in chickens for months to become the sixth Asian nation to report a resurgence of the killer virus, officials said on Wednesday.

Infected chickens were found at a family-run farm in a province near the capital where 4 500 birds have died or been culled.

"We have found a new outbreak of bird flu, the virus H5N1, at Kien Svay district in Kandal province," agriculture ministry official San Vanthy said.

The lethal strain of the bird flu virus has been responsible for 28 human deaths in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam during two waves of outbreaks this year.

Bought from the same place

Millions of birds have also died amid warnings the disease was now endemic in Asia with a second wave of cases emerging since July in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and now Cambodia.

The chickens at the infected Cambodian farm, 6km east of Phnom Penh, were bought from a nearby farm owned by Thai agro giant Charoen Pokphand, Lim Pak, deputy chief of the ministry's veterinary office said.

"There were ten samples and the results were all positive. They were taken from a family-run farm that had 4 500 chickens aged one-month old. All were bought from a CP-owned farm in Takhmao district in the same province," he said.

In a letter reported on national television late on Tuesday, agriculture minister Chan Sarun ordered a quarantine zone to be set up in a 3km radius around the infected area for at least 30 days.

The World Health Organisation fears that the H5N1 virus could mutate into a highly contagious form that triggers a global human flu pandemic.

Cambodia reported 12 outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 during its first wave but no human infections. The UN food agency warned in July that the kingdom was at risk of fresh outbreaks due to its proximity to Thailand and Vietnam.

Experts fear more undetected cases

Experts feared at the height of the crisis that more cases had gone undetected due to limited resources for testing in the impoverished country, where farming is mostly communal.

There is only a small commercial industry.

Authorities had been on high alert, monitoring imports of poultry and eggs from neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand to try to halt the spread of the virus.

The European Union said last week that it had extended a ban on imports of chicken meat and pet birds from several Asian countries hit by avian flu to March 31 next year.

The countries included Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

- AFP