The H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in Nakohn Panom, 740 km northeast of Bangkok. 310,000 hens will have to be culled after the virus killed a teenager elsewhere in the country last week, the Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday.
"The lab results confirmed last night chickens from a village in Nakohn Panom province have died of bird flu," Vice Agriculture Minister Charal Trinwuthipong was quoted as saying. "The culling on all 78 farms has already begun and we hope to finish them all by tonight," he said. Charal was quoted as saying Laotian farmers were to blame: "These egg merchants were too lazy to swap eggs from their trays to those of their customers'. They just swapped the trays and that's how the disease spread to the village."
