Seeking to reassure a public gripped by bird flu fears in Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has promised to pay 3 million baht (US$ 76,000) to the relatives of anyone who passes away from eating cooked chicken-meat or eggs.
Thaksin will pay this sum to the relatives of anyone in the general public, who does not work directly with chickens and who would die from eating cooked chicken-meat or eggs. "I will pay 3 million baht out of my own pocket," he said in his weekly radio address to the Thai public.
"I can reassure all of you that based on scientific facts it is not harmful to eat well-cooked chicken and eggs, as the virus will die in the high temperature of cooking," Thaksin said.
"If poultry products are well-cooked, they are 1 million percent safe," he added, citing the World Health Organization (WHO) assurances that the Avian Influenza virus would die if infected poultry or eggs were cooked at 75 degrees Celsius (167 Fahrenheit).
The premier of Thailand also vowed to pay out 100,000 Baht (US$ 2,500) for hospital expenses to anyone falling sick from eating cooked chicken-meat or eggs.
In a bid to hammer home his point, Thaksin popped into a KFC restaurant outlet in eastern Bangkok and ordered a chicken platter lunch for 153 baht (US$ 4), according to the same Thai radio.
2 Thai boys have died from the H5N1 virus in Thailand, with another 7 Thais suspected bird flu deaths recorded in the Thai Kingdom, where bird flu outbreaks have now been reported in more than 32 provinces including the capital of Bangkok.
Thaksin said 14 million chickens have now been culled in Thailand to prevent the further spread of the Bird Flu disease, which has devastated many of Thailand's small traditional farms as well as the Kingdom's 1.2 billion US-dollar chicken export industry.
On Friday the Thai government said it would organize a national "Chicken Day" next week in Thailand to boost plunging consumer confidence in poultry products, with PM Thaksin himself cooking up some chicken dishes.
The campaign comes as a surprise after Thaksin was completely ridiculed last week for taking part with his ministers in a televised chicken lunch aimed at reinforcing the Thai government's insistence that bird flu had not hit Thailand.
Just 3 days later he was forced to admit that it had been detected among chickens in the Thailand. Thaksin, who is facing mounting accusations his government knew bird flu had hit Thailand already in November 2004 but covered up the data, said his administration vowed to come clean in releasing test results of the 12 suspected cases including the 7 deaths.
"For suspected cases, some may have the bird flu virus but the laboratory tests have not yet concluded so," he said. "I confirm that the Thai government will announce problems straightaway. We have nothing to hide.", Thaksin added
Health officials reportedly said government laboratory tests on several tissue samples from the suspect cases were unsuccessful. "Not enough samples have been collected", senior health official Suphan Srithamma told the Nation newspaper.
"We will have to send samples to the WHO's lab in Australia and the US CDC (Centres for Disease Control) for further testing," Suphan Srithamma said.
Health officials have said Thailand may never know conclusively whether the 7 suspected bird flu fatalities were caused by the virus because it was not possible to obtain new tissue samples from the deceased as they have been cremated already.
