A new bird flu outbreak has been detected at a farm in Thailand's lower northern province Nakhon Sawan, Thai livestock officials said Thursday.

Thailand's Livestock Development Department director-general Sakchai Sriboonsue said the laboratory found the virus H1N1 in the dead chicken samples from a farm in Chumsaeng district, Nakhon Sawan on Jan. 22.

More than 4,000 chickens died suspiciously on Jan. 18 at the Sri Thai Farm and the farm owner informed local animal husbandry officials to collect samples of dead chickens for lab tests.

A lab test conducted in nearby province Phitsanulok confirmed the presence of the H1N1 virus in the dead chickens.

Nearly 10,000 chickens at the farm were culled on Jan. 22 and disinfectant was sprayed throughout nearby areas.

Officials have now ordered a quarantine of all avian livestock and requested the blanket disinfection of all poultry farms in the area within a five-kilometer radius of the infected farm. Consumers were also warned to ingest only properly cooked chicken meat.

Thailand has been among the countries hardest hit by the deadlyH5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2008)