H5N1 bird flu found on Lao farm
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-28 13:47 The H5N1 bird flu virus has been found on a
poultry farm in Laos, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on
Friday.
The outbreak occurred on a commercial farm 25 km (15 miles) south of the
capital Vientiane where about 2,500 chickens died last week, according to state
media reports.
The same farm experienced an outbreak in early 2004 when the virus swept
through parts of Asia. Since then, the only previous discovery of the H5N1 virus
in Laos had been in a single duck in May this year.
"The government of Laos has taken immediate action to control the spread of
the virus by culling all chickens in the farm, disinfecting the farm and imposed
movement restrictions within the five kilometre surveillance zone," said
Wantanee Kalpravidh, FAO regional coordinator for Avian Influenza Projects.
Further investigation was needed to determine the source of the outbreak, she
said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the virus killed a teenager in Thailand's northern
province of Pichit after the country's first outbreak in eight
months.
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