In the Thai border town of Mae Sot, there has been an outbreak of disease in poultry farms, and afflicted chickens are dying daily, a poultry farm keeper and medics said.
 
Nobody knows the kind of disease which has struck the poultry farms. Livestock businessmen are covering up the information of deaths of chickens in the farms, because they are afraid they would be asked to cull the chickens, if the situation takes a turn for the worse.
 
At poultry farms, chickens have been dying after they started falling sick earlier this month, a poultry farmer in Mae Sot said.
 
"We believe there has been an outbreak of bird flu in our poultry farm. We have to be careful. It has been confirmed that there have been chicken deaths in our farm as well as some other farms. We are not talking about it, because if we speak out, our poultry farms will be shut down," he said.
 
There are many chicken livestock farms in Mae Tao Tai, Mae Ku, Huay Hkalauk, Phop Phra and northern Mae Sot. According to a medic, the death toll of chickens is the highest in Mae Ramart Township.
 
Sayar Garmani, the editor of Nightingale Health Journal, has confirmed the outbreak of the disease.
 
"The death rate of chickens is steadily rising. Chickens are falling sick and their feathers are falling.  The death of one chicken due to being trapped in the iron net of their cages, in two weeks is normal. But, now 3-4 chickens are dying every day," he added.
 
Chicken livestock businessmen are covering up the news. Therefore, the local health department and authorities cannot investigate the death of chickens yet. There has been no announcement or alert about the disease, by the authorities. 
 
Mae Sot locals and Burmese workers do not know about it. Therefore, they are still consuming chicken as usual in Mae Sot, Burmese workers said.
 
"The symptoms are not much different. It can be further confirmed by testing at a laboratory," Sayar Garmani added.
 
Ma Toe, a teacher in a school sponsored by the Burmese Labour Solidarity Organization (BLSO), said that eating chicken has been banned in the school, for fear of spreading the disease.
 
"Most people are talking about it. We cannot say that it won't be dangerous for our children. If something happens to them, we have full responsibility because we are feeding them. Therefore, we have spoken to the cooking team. When the cooking team sends the daily meal, a record note-paper is also sent to write about whether the curry was good or not. Yesterday, we wrote that we cannot eat chicken curry, because it has been learnt that there is an outbreak of bird flu disease and it is dangerous for us," Ma Toe said.
 
Last November, the Thai Health Ministry announced that it would closely watch 9 provinces in northern Thailand, including Tak province because of an outbreak of bird flu disease in those areas.
 
In Thailand, 25 people had been infected with bird flu disease and 17 people had been killed in 2004-2005.