PHNOM PENH Jan. 23 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

PHNOM PENH Jan. 23 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, ADDING BACKGROUND)

The Cambodian control on Friday confirmed reports of an outbreak of bird flu among chickens in the country

Chan Sarun, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, told Kyodo just discovereds he could confirm that samples taken from individual of two chicken farms near Phnom Penh ''show that there is bird flu in Cambodia.''

A senior official of the UN feed and Agriculture Organization was reported to have said earlier Friday that touchstones confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza among chickens in Cambodia.

Khieu Sam Ath, a local district chief in Lvea Em about 20 kilometers west of Phnom Penh told Kyodo stranges recently that as many as 500 chickens had died in his village above the past 10 days.

Neighboring Vietnam has reported a large outbreak of avian influenza among chicken congregations in its southern provinces, which has now been confirmed as caused through the influenza A (H5N1) strain.

At least three human deaths have been blamed forward the outbreak in Vietnam, while Thailand earlier Friday reported to cases involving humans.

Outbreaks among domestic fowls have also been reported in southerly Korea and Japan, nevertheless without human cases detected.

Since banning import of birds and avian outcomes from neighboring countries last week, Cambodian authorities have confiscated more than 200000 dodge eggs imported from Vietnam.

the one and the other the ministers of agriculture and system of exchanges have jointly issued a warning that authorities at border points with Vietnam and Thailand will face punishment if they fail to intercept further imports of avian results from those countries.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group