Myanmar tests show first case of bird flu

BANGKOK, Mar 13 (Reuters) Myanmar has found the H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens in what is believed to be the secretive country's first case of the deadly disease, but there was no sign of human infection, a UN official said.

''The information is there is no human case so far,'' said the UN official in Yangon, who declined to be named.

The case emerged on March 8 after 112 chickens died on a farm in Aung Myae Thar Zan township near Mandalay, about 430 miles (700 km) north of Yangon.

Officials destroyed a flock of 780 birds and sent samples for testing at government laboratories in Mandalay and Yangon.

''They have carried out some tests and they believe that they have identified H5N1,'' Laurence Gleeson, an FAO official in Bangkok, told Reuters.

The government reported its findings on the Mandalay outbreak to the FAO and the OIE, the Paris-based international animal health body, today.

Dr Tang Zhengping, the FAO representative in Yangon, said samples had also been sent to laboratories in Australia and Thailand.

He said vaccines were needed to protect poultry against the disease.

He did not know if foreign experts would be allowed to visit the site, but he said the military government had been cooperating with the FAO on bird flu issues.

''We have close cooperation. I am satisfied,'' he said.

The military-ruled country is seen by some international health experts as a potential black hole in the global fight against the disease, which has killed 97 people worldwide.

While neighbouring China, Thailand and Laos have been battling a disease which swept across much of Asia in late 2003, Myanmar's junta had insisted the country was bird-flu free.

Experts feared the virus would go unreported -- either through lack of surveillance or a government cover-up -- long enough to mutate into a form that passes more easily between humans and trigger a pandemic that could kill millions.

Yangon said in December it would tell the world if bird flu were detected in the country.

It has also worked with UN agencies to step up surveillance in the countryside, including monitoring of prime stopover points for wild birds which could bring the virus from neighbouring countries.

REUTERS PV KP1206