Via The Phnom Penh Post, a report by Amelia Woodside: Avian flu worst at borders, Excerpt:
Cambodia's porous borders are creating one of several headaches for health officials working to minimise outbreaks of avian influenza, officials revealed yesterday at a symposium on emerging infectious diseases in Southeast Asia.
The border provinces of Takeo and Kampong Cham have been witness to the highest number of H5N1 poultry outbreaks since the disease was first discovered in early 2004 in the capital’s Russey Keo district, said Chhim Vutha, a representative of the National Veterinary Research Institute.
“We are worried that there seems to be so many sick birds this year,” he told the Post.
“Public-awareness campaigns and more surveillance in local villages need to increase. Farmers need to know where to go to report when birds fall sick.”
But monitoring the illegal transport of poultry across borders is a government conundrum that was continuously characterised by government officials as “challenging” yesterday.
And while there are checks along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border to stop sick poultry from entering the country, a regular procedure for identifying and confiscating sick birds is not in place.
