Culling Continues After Bird Flu Death

Ducks poke their heads out of the side of a pickup truck in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Photo: AP)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Wednesday, 28 April 2010

“If someone living in a place where ducks or chickens are raised in farms is suspected of having the H5N1 virus, we can provide Tamilflu tablets,”

Prey Veng provincial authorities expect to cull more than 700 ducks and chickens suspected of carrying avian influenza, following the death of a 27-year-old man earlier this month.

Chea Ly died of bird flu on April 17 in the province’s Kampong Leav district, which borders Vietnam, officials said this week, bringing the death toll of the disease in Cambodia to eight since 2005. The disease has killed more than 290 people since 2003.

Health and veterinary officials traveled from house to house in the district this week, killing the birds, which are raised family by family, said Chhun Dy, head of the district’s animal health office. So far, officials have culled more than 1,500 birds.

“We will continue to kill a remaining 400 chickens and 300 ducks,” Chhun Dy said.

Tep Samoeun, head of the provincial hospital’s infectious disease department, said health officials were monitoring villagers fro signs of the disease, sometimes referred to as H5N1, for the virus that causes it.

“If someone living in a place where ducks or chickens are raised in farms is suspected of having the H5N1 virus, we can provide Tamilflu tablets,” he said.

Authorities in Takeo province killed more than 20,000 ducks in February, resulting in losses of thousands of dollars for dozens of families.