Japan's agriculture ministry said today it would temporarily suspend imports of poultry from Thailand.
The Thai government, reacting to a media report that several Thais had died of bird flu, said today it was not covering up cases of the disease, which has killed at least five people in Vietnam.
Thailand's English-language Nationnewspaper quoted unnamed medical sources as saying several Thais had died of bird flu but health officials were too scared to speak out because of a "government cover-up".
The Thai government said it was not covering up cases of the disease, which has killed at least five people in Vietnam. Japan halted poultry imports from Vietnam on January 13th.
An independent senator who is also a doctor told Reuters that laboratory tests had confirmed seven-year-old Virat Phrapong, who was being treated in hospital, had contracted the disease in Suphanburi province, 100 km (60 miles) north of Bangkok.
Imports typically account for about 30-35 per cent of Japan's domestic poultry consumption, which in the year that ended in March 2003 amounted to about 1.74 million tonnes.
The Agriculture Ministry official said shipments from Thailand usually accounted for about a third of all chicken imports.
Thai Commerce Minister Wattana Muangsook played down the Japanese move.
"I do not think there will be any long-term impact. We will quickly solve the problem," he said.