Malaysia finds bird flu in village chickens

KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 (Reuters) Malaysia has detected the H5N1 bird flu virus in village chickens in its central state of Selangor and has begun culling poultry nearby as a preventive move, a health official said today.

Malaysia has reported no human cases of the infection, but today's incident was the first time avian influenza had been found in the southeast Asian nation since March 21 last year when several chickens tested positive for the virus, he said.

''When we sent our boys, we fond bird flu in two village chickens but people said 60 chickens had died earlier,'' Kamaruddin Mohamed Isa, the head of disease control for Malaysia's veterinary services department told Reuters.

He said authorities would cull chickens within a one-km (0.6-mile) radius of the outbreak in Selangor, which surrounds the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

''We will cull all chickens and impose a 10 km quarantine area and the police will put a road block around this area,'' Kamaruddin said.

The World Health Organisation says H5N1 has infected more than 300 people in 12 countries, 188 of whom have died since the disease re-emerged in Asia in late 2003.

Most human cases have involved people who have had contact with infected fowl. Experts fear if the virus mutates into a form that allows easy human-to-human transmission, this could trigger a pandemic that could kill millions around the world.

REUTERS KN ND1539