The Myanmar livestock authorities have slaughtered about 1,300 chickens as an initial measure to deal with a fresh outbreak of bird flu, an official of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told Xinhua Thursday.

 

The Myanmar authorities reported Wednesday evening the renewed outbreak of the avian influenza in a poultry farm in northwestern Yangon's Mayangon township to the FAO after it was detected and confirmed by themselves, said Tang Zhengping, representative of the FAO Yangon Office.

 

The destroyed chickens included 500 small hens, 360 laying hens and 500 hatched chickens, Tang quoted the authorities as saying, adding that the affected farm has been under restriction and sterilization work of the area has been underway.

 

The FAO and other international organizations are expected to further confirm the Myanmar report with regard to the fresh outbreak of H5N1 through examination by international authoritative institutions.

 

The recurrence of the deadly influenza came nearly six months after Myanmar declared itself bird-flu-free in the country last September after making sure then that no virus had been present in the country during a three-month program on detection of avian influenza carried out with the cooperation of foreign experts.

 

Myanmar was first struck by an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in March 2006 in two divisions of Mandalay and Sagaing and since then altogether 342,000 chickens, 320,000 quails and 180,000 eggs as well as 1.3 tons of feedstuff were destroyed at 545 poultry farms.

 

So far, there have been no human cases detected with H5N1 in the country.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2007)