Poultry imports from Thailand banned

The ban comes despite the fact that domestic supplies of poultry are failing to meet demand.

"I have just signed a letter addressed to authorities in all provinces sharing borders with Thailand , instructing them to enforce the ban on poultry imports to prevent a similar outbreak in Laos ," said the Director General of the Department of Livestock and Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr Bounkhuang Khambounheuang.

Mr Bounkhuang was speaking to Vientiane Times yesterday during his trip to meet authorities in the southern provinces, to ensure they continued their strict surveillance of the bird flu situation, in particular the suppression of all illegal poultry imports.

"We have met with immigration and livestock officials to hear their reports about the bird flu situation," he said.

Meanwhile, many of those affected by avian influenza last year have decided against starting up their farms again, believing the situation to be too critical to risk anything that could encourage another outbreak.

Officials said over 80 farms were affected by bird flu last year, only 30 of which had resumed activities to supply market needs.

Two farms in Savannakhet are currently raising poultry in a controlled environment to supply the province's main town.

In Vientiane , the annual requirement for eggs is 3,900 tonnes and for poultry, 3,957 tonnes, but today, the supply is only 2,300 tonnes of eggs and just 471 tonnes of poultry.

Market vendors instead have to import the eggs and birds from other provinces, which in turn is driving up prices.

In 2007, Lao authorities culled many thousands of birds as a way of controlling outbreaks, and as a result, it became necessary to import poultry from Thailand .

Agriculture officials are continuing to collect samples from birds in target areas and have established special zones for villagers to raise poultry.

Relevant officials also continued disseminating information to villagers to ensure they understood the situation and raised poultry in line with the standards determined by authorities.

According to the World Health Organisation, since 2003 there have been 357 human bird flu cases in 14 countries, and of these 225 proved fatal. Indonesia ranked the highest, with 124 human cases and 102 deaths.

Two deaths were reported from bird flu in Laos last year.

So far this year, seven deaths have been reported in Indonesia and one in Vietnam .

According to a Vietnamese News Agency report on Sunday, five Indonesians from the populous island of Java became the latest bird flu fatalities.