Officials In Northern Thailand Keep Close Watch On Bird Flu

PICHIT, December 18 (TNA) - As cold weather has begun sweeping through Thailand, officials at a livestock office in the northern Pichit province have kept a close watch on any repeated outbreak of bird flu in the province. Chavalit Boonmathit, livestock officer of Phichit, on Sunday led a number of veterinarians and livestock officials, to collect the birds’ waste and sent it for laboratory tests to find out whether the birds carry the deadly disease with them. Hundreds of thousands of birds have migrated from winter season in China and flown all the way to warmer weather in Pichit, the province where the avian influenza outbreak occurred about four year ago. Chavalit said officials have also been dispatched to local areas where birds are living to spray anti-viral agents to prevent an outbreak of the disease. So far, there have been no reports on dead fowl with unknown causes in the province, he added. (TNA)