Thai Government assured that the re-emergence of avian flu since early this month, which has stricken 18 provinces across the country so far, is not serious, and that its information disclosure system on the disease is transparent.

Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang was quoted Tuesday by the Thai News Agency as saying after chairing a meeting Monday to review development of the avian flu in the kingdom, that the situation of the disease in its second outbreak has been clearly different from that of the first outbreak earlier this year.

"In the second outbreak, only 204,566 fowls have been culled since July 3. In the first outbreak, up to 60 million fowls were destroyed," he pointed out.

"Among poultry in 107 suspected locations of 31 provinces whichhave been culled, only the dead fowls in 47 locations of 18 provinces were confirmed to have contracted avian flu" he said.

The government is waiting for laboratory confirmations on other55 locations in 20 provinces.

Chaturon said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had ordered agencies concerned to follow the government's "food safety" policyto ensure that people in both the domestic and overseas markets consume safe cooked Thai chicken.

There have been 19 suspected patients with records of exposing to sick fowls seven days before they felt ill.

However, 17 were confirmed not having contracted bird flu, while the rest two are waiting for confirmations from laboratory tests.

Source: Xinhua