Thai Farmers Get US$125 Million Compensation
By D. Arul Rajoo
Bernama, 8 May 2006

BANGKOK, May 8 (Bernama) -- The Thai government had paid over five billion baht or about US$125 million in compensation to farmers affected by avian influenza or bird flu while the country's frozen chicken export dropped sharply from US$597.3 million in 2003 to US$13.3 million last year.

Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said the compensations were paid to farmers whose livestocks were culled as part of the government's outbreak control measures at source.

"These and other measures seem to have been effective. There has been no further outbreak in Thailand since last November while the last confirmed human case was reported last October," he said when opening the Acmecs Special Senior Officials' Meeting on Avian Influenza Pandemic Preparedness here Monday.

Acmecs or Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy is a cooperation framework amongst Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Kantathi said Thailand was among the countries which suffered from the bird flu outbreak two years ago as millions of birds were culled as a pre-emptive measures         in        accordance    with

recommendations by the World Health Organization and other agencies.

He said the Thai government was transparent in dealing with the outbreak while exporters of poultry products adapted to the situation by increasing the exports of processed chicken, which was worth US$689.6 million last year, an increase of 33 per cent over the previous year.

Kantathi said exports of frozen chicken were picking up again, earning US$2.1 million in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 272 per cent over the previous year and he attributed the rise to Thailand's seriousness to regain consumer confidence in the international market.

On the meeting being held just two days after a similar meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held in the Vietnamese port city of Danang, Kantathi said joint preventive measures among countries must be put in place now as bird flu was becoming a medical and economic global threat.

Since the first outbreak in Asia in late 2003, the H5N1 has spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa where more than 200 persons had contacted the disease, over half with fatal result, he said.

The World Bank estimates that the outbreaks have already cost over US$10 million in economic losses while global cost on necessary prevention and preparatory programmes could cost US$1.4 billion over the next three years.

During the Apec meeting, the Asian Development Bank had estimated that an outbreak of a mutated bird flu virus strain which can be transmitted from human to human, if such a virus occurred, could cause damage of more than US$100 billion to Asian economies.

Thailand's vice-minister for Public Health, Dr Vachara Phanchet said Thailand was effective in its bird flu control measures due to its strong programmes at the community level where more than 800,000 volunteers in 70,000 villages combined their efforts to inform the authorities if there were any signs of outbreak.

"One person in each village covers about 10 to 15 households. They will inform the local authority if there is any symptom of sick animals," he added.-- BERNAMA