Zoo's tigers died from bird flu

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Twenty-three tigers have died from bird flu at a private zoo in Thailand after being fed the carcasses of chickens infected with the disease, a government official said Tuesday.

The tigers had been dying at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in central Chonburi province since Sept. 14, said Charal Trinvuthipong, director of the Bird Flu Prevention and Elimination Center. The park was forced to close to the public while authorities investigated.

"We've discovered that all 23 dead tigers had bird flu," he said. "We've found that another 30 tigers are sick. We believe that the tigers contracted bird flu because they ate chicken carcasses, and we believe the carcasses had bird flu."

Veterinarians are checking for the disease at chicken farms in the province, where the zoo got the birds that were fed to the tigers, he added.

"We have to order the farms to cull all the chickens," Charal said.

The more than 400 tigers at the zoo are regularly fed raw chicken, a zoo official said on condition of anonymity.

During this year's first wave of bird flu, a clouded leopard and a white tiger died of the virus at another zoo in Chonburi, the same province where the tiger facility is located.

News of the latest tiger deaths came as the government prepared to cull ducks, which are thought to play a major role in spreading the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 31 people in Thailand and Vietnam and forced the culls of tens of millions of birds this year.

Although the virus has most commonly been found in chickens, scientists fear it could mutate by linking with a human flu virus, sparking a global pandemic.

After Thailand announced its first probable case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to fight the outbreak and rid the country of the disease by the end of October.

International experts, however, have said the virus seems to be entrenched in the region and it is likely to take years to control its spread.