Thailand has discovered new cases of bird flu just as it was about to declare the country free of the disease, a livestock official said Monday.
Bird flu, or avian influenza, has been found in fowl in villages in the central province of Suphanburi, 100 kilometres north of Bangkok, said Yukol Limlamthong, director general of the Agriculture Ministry's Livestock Department.
"The disease was found in 10 fighting cocks in the five villages where an outbreak hit last year," he said.
The story comes from Canada.com. The news is not surprising, bird flu is highly unlikely to be eradicated in the country anytime soon. The government of Thailand made a series of overly optimistic forecasts this year, eager to declare the crisis over. The country was the world's fourth exporter of poultry in 2003 and the bird flu has devastated the industry. Read more on the politics of bird flu in Thailand in this April article.
