New bird flu outbreak feared in Thailand

Thailand suspects a new outbreak of bird flu at a farm in a central province where thousands of chickens have died.

“The result of lab tests will be confirmed in the next couple of days,” deputy agriculture minister Newin Chidchob said.

An outbreak in Ayutthaya province would be the second since the government declared on May 14 that it was all but certain that Thailand was free of the disease following widespread outbreaks earlier in the year.

An isolated outbreak in northern Chiang Mai province in late May also raised alarms.

The deadly strain of bird flu that swept through 10 Asian nations earlier this year – killing or forcing the cull of more than 100 million poultry – killed more than 37 million birds in Thailand and jumped to humans, killing eight.

An additional 16 people died in Vietnam.

Chickens at the afflicted farm in Ayutthaya began to die about two weeks ago, farm owner Veera Sripramong said. Officials from the local Livestock Office visited his farm and told him to cull all his 43,000 chickens.