In the past, broiler development in Thailand was largely undertaken by the private sector,
with little intervention or assistance from the Thai government.4 However, as a result
of the increasing importance of international trade in livestock – especially poultry – the
Department of Livestock Development (DLD), in 1999, issued farm standards and various
regulations on animal welfare to ensure compliance with the European Union’s (EU)
regulations and requirements. After the onset of the HPAI outbreak, the government has
added measures which, in practical terms, require that all broiler farms producing birds for
export are transformed into closed farms (i.e. use evaporative cooling houses). As such a
transformation is quite capital intensive, the government actions, arguably, favour large scale
modernized farms