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17 February 2004 |
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BIRD FLU CRISIS |
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| Mass cull
of Open-billed Storks ruled out after laboratory tests |
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Unlikely to have the disease, says Praphat |
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Ranjana Wangvipula
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has ruled out
the mass slaughter of open-billed storks in Nakhon Sawan and the
outskirts of Bangkok, saying there was no compelling evidence to
suggest they were carriers of bird flu.
''It is probably not true that they carry the disease.
''It could be other species,'' said Minister Praphat Panyachartrak
yesterday after talks with veterinarians at the ministry.
Laboratory tests showed live storks in Bueng Borapet wetland in
Nakhon Sawan province and Lat Krabang district in Bangkok were
free of bird flu. Some of the birds which died, which were small
in number, had the virus.
Test results which linked some storks to the virus stirred a
debate on whether all 70,000 of them should be destroyed.
Mr Praphat said he was not convinced killing the birds was
necessary, adding.the two areas had already become permanent
habitats for the storks, and it was unlikely they brought the
disease from abroad.
He compared storks in Bueng Boraphet and Lat Krabang with those at
Wat Phai Lom, a riverside temple in Pathum Thani province, which
migrated from Bangladesh in the winter, and found that the
migratory birds were still free of the virus.
''It is possible the dead storks caught the disease from sick
chickens here,'' he said.
Mr Praphat said killing all the storks would pose a threat to the
ecological system. Each day one stork cleared up to 30 cherry
snails, a farm pest.
About 30,000 open-billed storks live in Bueng Boraphet swamp and
40,000 in Lat Krabang district.
Test results on samples of waterfowl at Kampaengsan district of
Nakhon Pathom showed they were free from bird flu, Mr Praphat
said. Dead waterfowl was a cause of the small outbreak of the
virus in Hong Kong in late 2002 and early 2003.
Rattapan Pattanarangsan, of Mahidol University's veterinary
faculty, said people should not blame migratory birds for the
virus.
He said only two stork carcasses collected in Phut Khao in Lat
Krabang were found to have the virus. |
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