The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has cleared up alleged irregularities involving a company which supplied rabies vaccines to officials and was put under the spotlight amid doubts over substandard vaccines.
The scandal emerged when it was found the deadly virus had spread unusually since January, killing six people in Surin, Songkhla, Trang, Nakhon Ratchasima, Prachuap Khiri Khan and Buri Ram.
The situation escalated when a dog attacked three more children on Tuesday night, with one brutally savaged, in Samut Prakan, causing officials to declare a "red zone" at Pak Klong Mon Moo 4 community in Bang Sao Thong district.
On the alleged corruption issue, the ministry-appointed probe panel agreed to stop its investigation after finding no evidence to implicate the company, owned by the wife of former chief of Department of Livestock Development (DLD) Phairot Hengsaengchai, in the case.
The firm was accused of being a single supplier of the vaccines to the department for 25 years.
It was true the company had joined bidding for the vaccines, but that occurred before Mr Phairot was promoted to the administration position, Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Luck Wajananawat said Thursday.
After Mr Phairot assumed the deputy DLD chief, the department "blacklisted" the company, barring it from competing for the rabies vaccine projects since 2014, he said.
During earlier bidds in which the firm won, the officials found no violations to laws, Mr Luck added.
Mr Phairot was transferred to another department last year.
The issue of substandard vaccines arose two years when the department bought the product from another firm in 2016, he said. The Food and Drug Administration found vaccine concentrations were below an acceptable standard.
There was still a question of whether the two firms are related but a check on the name lists of company executives found no connection, Mr Luck said.
Yet the corruption scandal is not the only problem the DLD has encountered. It is struggling to curb the spread of the rabies, which caused authorities to declare some areas of a total of 24 provinces as epidemic zones.
They are Chachoengsao, Prachin Buri, Rayong, Nakhon Ratchasima, Yasothon, Si Sa Ket, Ubon Ratchathani, Kalasin, Khon Kaen, Mukdahan, Udon Thani, Chiang Rai, Nan, Tak, Phetchabun, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Samut Songkhram, Trang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Songkhla, Satun, Nonthaburi, and Samut Prakan.
The case in Samut Prakan was extremely violent as one of the three victims, a three-year-old, suffered severe wounds, officials said.
The dog was hunted and killed out of fear it was infected. Officials are performing a test to confirm whether the dog had rabies, said Suraphan Noisa-at, a Bang Sao Thong livestock official who decided to declare the red zone in the area where the incident erupted.
The announcement puts a strict ban on the removal of dogs and cats' carcasses.