Quarantine set as 4 new bird flu suspects surface in Phitsanulok
PHITSANULOK, Jan 19 (TNA) - Four members of a duck-farming family in the northern province of Phitsanulok are suspected to be infected with the virulent strain of bird flu after consuming two dead poultry thought to be carrying the disease, a senior public health official said Friday.
Phitsanulok provincial health chief Dr. Thawatchai Kamoltham said Thursday that health authorities had declared the family's duck farm in Tortae subdistrict of Wat Bot district here, quarantined for two weeks as a precaution.
About 600 ducks on the farm have been slaughtered and buried, he said.
The authorities were also concerned that some 30 pigs on the farm may have contracted H5N1 virus.
Dr. Thawatchai disclosed that there are many flocks of free range ducks within a one-kilometre radius of quarantined farm which must be closely monitored.
On Monday, the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok announced that a new outbreak of virulent bird flu was found in ducks in northern Thailand, the first such case in six months.
The outbreak of the H5N1 virus was confirmed by laboratory tests after the deaths of more than 100 ducks were reported in Plaichumpol subdistrict of the Phitsanulok provincial seat, according to Manet Runluang, an official at the Public Health Ministry's Department of Communicable Disease Control.
Thailand's Public Health Ministry ordered its staff and community health volunteers to increase measures to curb the outbreak and prevent its spread to humans. (TNA)-E110
PHITSANULOK, Jan 19 (TNA) - Four members of a duck-farming family in the northern province of Phitsanulok are suspected to be infected with the virulent strain of bird flu after consuming two dead poultry thought to be carrying the disease, a senior public health official said Friday.
Phitsanulok provincial health chief Dr. Thawatchai Kamoltham said Thursday that health authorities had declared the family's duck farm in Tortae subdistrict of Wat Bot district here, quarantined for two weeks as a precaution.
About 600 ducks on the farm have been slaughtered and buried, he said.
The authorities were also concerned that some 30 pigs on the farm may have contracted H5N1 virus.
Dr. Thawatchai disclosed that there are many flocks of free range ducks within a one-kilometre radius of quarantined farm which must be closely monitored.
On Monday, the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok announced that a new outbreak of virulent bird flu was found in ducks in northern Thailand, the first such case in six months.
The outbreak of the H5N1 virus was confirmed by laboratory tests after the deaths of more than 100 ducks were reported in Plaichumpol subdistrict of the Phitsanulok provincial seat, according to Manet Runluang, an official at the Public Health Ministry's Department of Communicable Disease Control.
Thailand's Public Health Ministry ordered its staff and community health volunteers to increase measures to curb the outbreak and prevent its spread to humans. (TNA)-E110
