Thailand points finger at Laos for latest bird flu

BANGKOK, July 31 (Reuters) Despite accusing its neighbour, Laos, of allowing H5N1 bird flu to spread over its border, Thailand is offering help in stamping out the deadly virus, a Thai official today said.

A delegation is due to arrive in Vientiane on Thursday to discuss cooperation in fighting the outbreaks, which led to the culling of hundreds of thousands of chickens in Thailand and Laos last week, Livestock Development chief Yukol Limlaemthong said.

''We are at high risk,'' Yukol told Reuters after the slaughter of 310,000 hens in an egg-producing village in northeastern Thailand which Thai officials say probably became infected via contaminated egg trays from Laos.

''We know we can't interfere in their domestic issues but we would like to find out what sort of help they need to fight the disease effectively together,'' Yukol said.

Thai officials yesyerday said 78 farms in Nakhon Panom, 740 km (460 miles) northeast of Bangkok, had been hit by the virus shortly after the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirmed an outbreak in a suburb of the capital, Vientiane.

Nakhon Panom is 300 km from Vientiane.

The farm, where about 2,500 chickens died earlier this month, according to Lao state media, also had an outbreak in early 2004 when the virus swept through parts of Asia, including Laos, where most of the 5.6 million people live in remote, rural areas.

The FAO today said it was investigating whether the outbreaks in the two countries were related.

''We do not know whether the recurrence of avian influenza in some parts of the poultry in the two countries is a result of low grade circulation of the virus in backyard farms, or a reintroduction from outside,'' said FAO bird flu expert Laurence Gleeson.

''A lesson learnt from the outbreaks in the two countries is that the animal health surveillance system needs to be reviewed,'' said Gleeson, who is due to arrive Vientiane tomorrow.

Thailand has tried to step up its defences against the virus following the return of the virus after an eight-month lull and the death of a 17-year-old youth in the northern province of Phichit.

The Agriculture Ministry instructed governors of provinces bordering Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, where animal health care is virtually non-existent, to increase surveillance of cross-border trade.

REUTERS SB HS1108