# 2451
Sukhothai Province
Although this article in today's Bangkok Post calls this a `new outbreak', and refers to bird deaths `last week', I reported on a suspected bird flu outbreak in this province on October 30th of this year.
It isn't entirely clear if this is the same incident. If so, it has taken an unusually long time to confirm the presence of the H5N1 virus.
In any event, here is the new report.
New bird flu outbreak in Sukhothai
Monday November 10th, 2008
Bird flu has been found at a native-chicken farm in the northern province of Sukhothai, raising fears of a new outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus in the country.
Livestock Development Department chief Sakchai Sriboonsue said a lab test on a chicken carcass from the Thung Saliam district showed the dead fowl was infected with the H5N1 strain.
All 17 native chickens at the farm had been culled to prevent the disease spreading, Mr Sakchai said.
The department declared the area near the infected farm a bird flu outbreak zone to facilitate the disease control operation last week, when five chickens at the farm died, he said.
It was the third outbreak of bird flu case this year. The first two were in Nakhon Sawan's Chumsaeng district and Phichit's Sak Lek sub-district in January.
''The department will work closely with health officials to prevent the virus being transmitted from the fowls to humans,'' the livestock chief said.
The department will also inform the World Organisation for Animal Health today about the re-emergence of bird flu. Frozen poultry exports would be suspended.
Agriculture Minister Somsak Prissananantakul has instructed stepped-up surveillance for bird flu as the disease usually flares up in the cold season.
The country's first outbreak was in January, 2004. More than 60 million fowls died or were culled. A total of 25 people have been infected by the virus since 2004, with 17 dying.
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