Thursday, February 4, 2010

Cambodia: Duck culling begins in Takeo

Excerpt:
Thursday, 04 February 2010

HUNDREDS of ducks and chickens in Takeo province’s Pralay Meas village were destroyed on Wednesday in the first day of a cull that officials said was ordered to contain a newly confirmed outbreak of the H5N1 virus, commonly known as bird flu.

Kao Phal, director of the Animal Health and Reproduction Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), said that authorities killed about 710 ducks and 350 chickens in and around Pralay Meas village, located in Romenh commune, Koh Andeth district. The ministry’s bird flu containment protocol requires all farm fowl within a 5-kilometre radius of the outbreak zone to be destroyed.
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Thai Ly, chief of domesticated animals at the Takeo province agriculture department, said that nearly 20,000 ducks had died and that 35,270 had fallen ill before the first specimens were sent for testing on January 31, and that an unspecified number had succumbed to the virus since then.

He said Wednesday’s cull was accompanied by the gathering of additional bird samples from around the affected village.
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hat-tip RoRo

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