Two more bird flu outbreaks hit ducks in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Bird flu outbreaks have hit two districts in eastern Cambodia, killing thousands of ducks, after a man smuggled infected birds to the region bordering Vietnam, officials said on Friday. Two people were admitted to local hospital suspected of having contracted the virus, Ku Chanthan, a veterinary official in the province told Reuters. He said the results of tests on the two would be released in coming days. Last week the H5N1 virus was confirmed in more than 1,300 ducks that died in Prey Veng province, 70 km (45 miles) southeast of the capital Phnom Penh. The owner of the ducks smuggled surviving poultry to the eastern province of Kampong Cham where a bird flu outbreak killed nearly 2,000 ducks this week, Ku Chanthan said. A further 1,000 ducks died this week in another district of Kampong Cham, about 95 km (60 miles) east of Phnom Penh. The deaths were confirmed as bird flu on Friday. "The result of tests on duck samples taken from the two districts has shown that the virus is H5N1," senior agriculture official Yim Voeunthan told Reuters. Authorities ordered the cull of several hundred poultry in the province. The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed more than 140 people worldwide, including six in Cambodia, according to the World Health Organisation. The virus has not yet shown the ability to mutate into a form that could pass easily between humans, causing a pandemic that might kill millions of people. But experts fear it might, especially in a poor country such as Cambodia, which is recovering from 30 years of civil war and where health surveillance systems are limited. http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=BKK298001