The agriculture ministry, along with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation launched the first in a series of 14 nationwide bird flu prevention workshops at a major live bird market in Kampong Thom city on Tuesday. Government and UN speakers explained to an audience of some 50 poultry butchers and traders how to prevent and control the spread of the disease. To prevent transmission of the disease, poultry traders were encouraged to sell only healthy poultry, separate chickens and ducks into different quarters and maintain clean transport cages and market stalls, according to FAO communications officer Maria Cecilia Dy.  A major obstacle to halting bird flu is the failure of poultry vendors to report the disease for fear that their stock will be indiscriminately eradicated. Local NGOs have encouraged the government to introduce a compensation policy. At least seven people have died of bird flu in Cambodia.