- PHNOM PENH (Reuters)
- Cambodia has confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a farm on the outskirts
of Phnom Penh, a government official said on Friday.
-
- "So far the bird flu is only in one place,"
the Agriculture Ministry official told Reuters.
-
- He said the origin of the outbreak was still under investigation
and the ministry was confident it had contained any further spread by sending
technical staff across the country.
-
- The outbreak was confirmed through tests of dead chickens
conducted by a laboratory in Paris.
-
- A World Health Organization official said there were
no suspected human cases of bird flu in Cambodia.
-
- An outbreak of the highly-infectious avian flu strain
has infected at least two people in neighboring Thailand and killed at
least five people in Vietnam.
-
- In a bid to stop the bird flu crossing into Cambodia,
officials have shut the borders to poultry and poultry products, although
in such a deeply impoverished country any ban is likely to have holes.
-
- The FAO said in a statement possible links between the
outbreaks in Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam
were being investigated.
-
- "This confirms FAO's concern that the spread of
bird flu is taking on a large-scale regional dimension," said He Changchui,
FAO's chief for Asia and the Pacific.
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