Bird flu threatens poultry sales in Cambodia at New Year
16/12/2008 17:03
Cambodian poultry vendors feared the latest case of bird flu would once
again hit demand for chickens and ducks, just weeks before the Chinese New Year
when they traditionally make their biggest sales, national media reported
today.
Vendors in Phnom Penh told the Cambodia Daily that their sales has not
yet been affected by the announcement Friday that a 19- year-old man from Kandal
province was found to be infected with the H5N1 virus.
But they expressed
concern about their business, which has been adversely affected by the seven
previous bird flu cases found in humans in Cambodia, all of which were fatal,
the newspaper said.
"My business went down for about a month after the bird
flu first occurred in Cambodia but after that, it became normal again for
Cambodians to buy chickens," said Huy Say, who sells ducks and chickens at
O'Russei market.
He added that a similar pattern has repeated every time
after a bird flu case was revealed.
Meanwhile, Cambodian Agriculture Minister
Chan Sarun said yesterday that people and animals were being tested and that no
new infection had yet been found.
Xinhua
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