Duck farmer living in affected area fears for future
Like 0 Dislike 0 Published on 21 Jul 2015
SHOTLIST
Phai Look Nok village, U-Tong district, Suphan Buri province, Central Thailand
1. Wide of ducks in water
2. Wide of children playing on a boat
3. Wide of ducks in water by boat
4. Various of ducks
5. Wide of duck farmer, Thongmee Meejaidee, walking on water's edge
6. Wide of farm
7. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Thongmee Meejaidee, duck farm owner:
"If we can move the ducks around and let them roam to look for food naturally, they will be able to develop a normal immune system, and we
(farmers) will be just fine. But once their movement is restricted, this mean we will have to buy them feed and the costs becomes more expensive for us."
8. Farmer walking to feed ducks
9. Various of farmer preparing food
10. Various of Nivat Namjaidee, farm worker, on the water with ducks
11. Close up of ducks
12. Close of Nivat's wife and their son feeding ducks
13. Wide of farm area, with Nivat's family working
14. Various of Nivat's son feeding ducks
15. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Nivat Namjaidee, duck farm worker:
"My son is just three years old. I know he's very young but we have been living with ducks for so long. I'm not afraid for him. I'm not worried because I don't believe it (bird flu) will happen to us."
16. Various of ducks being fed
STORYLINE
Duck farmers in Thailand fear for their livelihoods as Avian influenza has now spread to more than half of the country, with 39 provinces reporting confirmed or suspected cases of fresh bird-flu infections.
Last week, Thai authorities had just 21 provinces under inspection for bird flu, suggesting the virus is spreading rapidly.
The provinces of Suphan Buri, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, and Kamphaeng Phet have been put on a list of provinces with severe bird-flu problems.
Thongmee Meejaidee is the owner of a free-range duck farm with more than 4,000 ducks in one of the bird flu infected "red areas" declared by the Thai government.
Due to measures introduced by the Thai government to contain the disease, his ducks need to be kept in the farm and their movement has been strictly restricted.
This is directly effecting ducks farmers' business as movement restriction results in poor eggs production.
Meejaidee is not taking any other specific measures against bird flu, besides restricting the ducks' movement.
Nivat Namjaidee is one of his workers at the farm.
His wife and three-year-old boy also take care of the ducks without any protection in one of the riskiest area for bird flu in the country.
But Nivat does not think the virus will affect them.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in many parts of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing more than 60 people.
So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with sick birds, but health authorities fear that the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans, possibly causing a global pandemic.
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/750bf1370f87d1c9b281b3d2dc6d9b93
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork