Thailand culls more than 200 chickens after finding deadly bird flu strain

Bangkok: Thai officials culled more than 200 chickens after detecting the H5N1 bird flu virus in a rural area more than 400 kilometres north of Bangkok, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

The outbreak near the ancient capital of Sukhotha is Thailand's first in 10 months.

"Lab tests showed that the chickens died of the deadly H5N1 virus and we have killed all chickens in the area," Agriculture Minister Somsak Prisnanantakul told reporters.

"We are confident that everything is under control," he added.

The highly pathogenic virus was last found in Thailand in late January in the northern provinces of Nakhon Sawan and Phichit, where thousands of birds were culled.

There were four outbreaks in Thailand last year, but no new reports of human infections in the country where H5N1 has killed 17 people since 2003.