Bibberle unplugged

Thai health officials in this Mekong River province bordering Laos, some 615 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, have culled more than 2,000 poultry suspected to have been stricken with the deadly avian influenza -- bird flu. A total of 230 chickens at a farm in Si Chiang Mai district of Nong Khai died of unknown causes Saturday, forcing the provincial authorities to later cull some 2,000 chickens at the farm. Another 60 chickens raised by villagers living near the farm were also destroyed. Nong Khai governor Supot Laowansiri said the change in the weather could be one reason for the chickens at the farm to have died unnaturally. Governor Supot said lab tests on the dead chickens could be known within three days. Meanwhile, the Disease Control Department had announced that testing showed that 111 persons suspected to be infected with bird flu, including a duck farmer in Ayutthaya province, were suffering from ordinary fever or pneumonia and not from bird flu. The tests were carried out during the first three weeks of January, a Public Health Ministry spokesperson said.