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Bkk Post -Rangoon urged to stop spr



Subject: Bkk Post -Rangoon urged to stop spread of diseases

Bangkok Post - July 24, 1999.
Rangoon urged to stop spread of diseases
Agencies join forces to check smuggling

Supamart Kasem

Bangkok should ask Rangoon to help prevent the spread of diseases from
animals imported from Burma, the Livestock Department said yesterday.

Suvit Phollarp, the department head, said the Foreign Ministry would be
asked to discuss with Burmese authorities how both countries could work
together to prevent the spread of diseases from imported Burmese cattle.

Thailand imports some 100,000 heads of cattle from Burma via Tak yearly.

Mr Suvit said major animal epidemics, such as anthrax and foot-and-mouth
disease, often spread into Thailand from border areas.

It would cost the government over 100 million baht to deal with each animal
epidemic, and studies by Japanese experts showed the cost could reach 1,000
million baht, Mr Suvit told a seminar on the control of animal epidemics
held in Mae Sot district yesterday. According to him, there has been no
report of an epidemic outbreak among animals brought into Tak from Burma
since his department and other agencies joined forces to facilitate cattle
imports to check smuggling.

In 1997, the government earned only 260,480 baht in import taxes as only
1,184 out of a total of 79,947 cattle were brought in from Burma legally.

After the enforcement of measures to facilitate cattle imports, the country
collected about 10 million baht in taxes last year as the number of Burmese
cattle legally imported through Tak rose to 45,544 heads out of a total of
90,297 brought in.

The revenue from cattle import taxes in the first half of this year was 18.4
million baht, he said.