Thailand screens out bird flu from Cambodia

SURIN, Feb 3 (TNA) Officials in Thailand's northeastern Surin Province are implementing strict measures to prevent any cross-border bird flu outbreak from Cambodia, following recent reports on a boy dying from the avian flu in the neighboring country. Surin's health, quarantine and livestock development officials have sprayed sanitizers on all vehicles passing the Chong Jom border pass into Karbchoeng District and have checked body temperatures of people coming from Cambodia and provided them with sanitizing gel. Thai soldiers, police, administrative authorities and immigration police have set up checkpoints near the Chong Jom border pass to block poultry imports from Cambodia; while Thai chicken eggs exported to Cambodia are required to be packed on paper trays which cannot be returned to Thailand. The actions are in response to last month's death of the boy, aged two years and seven months, who were announced to have died from bird flu at a child hospital in Cambodia's Siem Reap Province. Cambodian authorities are culling chickens and Thai authorities are afraid that Cambodian chickens may be smuggled into Thailand for sale or infected people can cross the border into the Thai side. Authorities in Surin have tried hard to prevent the avian influenza and have been successful in the mission for seven years.(TNA)