Last week, authorities in Laos detected a fresh outbreak of bird flu in Northern Laos and slaughtered all the poultry that was affected by it, a government spokesperson said.
Samples from dead ducks in Laos' northern Luang Prabang province have been tested positive to bird flu virus, media reports said Tuesday. The fowls have been banned from transport, trade, and consumption in the district.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Yong Chanthalangsy said that no human infections were suspected and about 7,000 poultry have been culled within a radius of a kilometer. The authorities are advising locals to take preventative measures.
The WHO statistics reports that about 243 people have died from bird flu throughout the world. Two deaths were reported from Laos last year. The H5N1 avian influenza is known only to kill poultry, but scientists fear that it could mutate and end in a global pandemic.
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