Agricultural authorities from Ministry of Agriculture were testing samples of 10,000 dead ducks raised in Koh Adeth district in Takeo province near the Vietnam border but they suspected that those ducks died from avian influenza.

Even though, authorities have yet to identify the cause of death. All ducks were sprayed with a chemical to kill viruses and then burned in a hole.

Kao Phal, director of the ministry’s veterinary department  said that “we forbid villages from cooking dead or sick ducks for food, from touching directly dead or sick ducks, and from selling dead or sick ducks, in order to avoid a contagious disease,” according to VOA Khmer.

Since 2005, seven Cambodians have been killed by avian influenza. In 2008, a Kandal province man survived the disease.

Kao Phal encouraged villagers to wear masks, gloves and socks when handling poultry or fowl, as authorities work to prevent the spread of the disease.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.