Thai Chickens being collected prior to their destruction (AFP)

BRUSSELS, January 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The European Union announced Friday, January 23, it was banning imports of Thai chicken after Thailand confirmed it was suffering from an outbreak of deadly bird flu ravaging Asian countries.

The European Commission - the EU's executive branch - said it was banning all imports of poultry and poultry products from Thailand "with immediate effect,” according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The EU is Thailand's second-biggest export market for poultry after Japan. It is the only Asian country to export poultry to the EU.

Earlier Friday, Thailand - after weeks of denials – said that bird flu had infected humans and chickens in the kingdom, unleashing devastating import bans on its billion-dollar chicken exporting industry.

As shares in Thai agricultural firms plummeted and analysts warned the lucrative tourism industry could be harmed, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra appealed for calm and said panic would not grip the stock exchange.

"It's a short-term effect as the bourse is sensitive to psychological factors. The hard hit sector will be the poultry industry," said the Premier who ate chicken Tuesday in a stunt to boost confidence in the industry.

Exports ‘Suspended’

Clarifying an earlier statement that Thailand would suspend all chicken exports, deputy agriculture minister Newin Chidchob said there was no ban but the government expected Thailand's chicken customers to stop their imports.

"It depends on the importing countries. Whatever action they take is up to them. We cannot force them," he said.

Thailand's biggest poultry buyer Japan announced a ban Thursday and within hours of the confirmation of the disease European Union officials said they would shortly impose imposed similar action.

Philippine authorities halted poultry imports from all Asian countries to stop the spread of avian influenza, and Hong Kong also tightened a ban on affected countries to include Thailand.

Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan confirmed that bird flu had been detected in two boys from provinces west of Bangkok where a chicken disease identified until now as fowl cholera and bronchitis has been raging.

Sudarat said three other people were being tested for bird flu and that their results would be finalized in several days, while all those in contact with the boys had been ordered to observe a 10-day quarantine.

Worst-Hit Region

Meanwhile, the Thai Agriculture Ministry said testing on the chicken disease, which has hit 16 provinces and forced up to seven million chickens to be culled, had confirmed the presence of bird flu in the worst-hit region of Suphan Buri province.

Thaksin denied the government had covered up the outbreak, and said the Health Ministry had already been working on the crisis before official confirmation of the disease.

"Please trust the government. It did not make an announcement in the very beginning because it did not want the public to panic," he said. "Please realize that the government has done more than the public was aware of."

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has already killed at least five people in Vietnam and seventeen other people are believed to be infected.

Bird flu has also been reported in Japan and South Korea. A weaker strain, H5N2, has been found at a farm in Taiwan.

Culling Chicken

"Please trust the government,” Thai Premiere

The epidemic has already led to the culling or deaths of more than 2.5 million chickens in Vietnam, nearly two million in South Korea, 55,000 in Taiwan and 35,000 in Japan.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Friday it was concerned that Vietnam was not culling enough chickens to contain its outbreak.

"I am still somewhat concerned," said Anton Rychener, FAO head in Vietnam.

"The government is only paying around 5,000 dong (30 cents) for a culled bird, but the market value is more like 50,000 dong. That's why we are seeing a reluctance to carry out the cull."

China has yet to report any outbreak, but Hong Kong has said that a wild falcon found dead near a chicken farm had tested positive for H5N1.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it fears that as the virus spreads across Asia it could mutate into a far more lethal form.

And it warns the world could face another influenza pandemic if H5N1 swaps genes with a common flu virus, creating a lethal pathogen that could spread around the globe within months.

Only the swift culling of 1.4 million birds in Hong Kong during an outbreak of H5N1 there in 1997 that killed six people averted a global health crisis, according to the WHO.