HANOI (AFP) - Laos has started a poultry cull in three villages near the capital Vientiane to limit the spread of the bird flu virus detected last week, an official has said.
"There is no new outbreak but we have taken measures in a five-kilometre (three-mile) radius around the farms contaminated," said foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy on Tuesday.
There were many heads of poultry to examine, he added.
It was unclear how many animals would be culled. About 19,000 chickens had been destroyed by July 30, the online edition of the English-language newspaper the Vientiane Times said Tuesday.
The paper said poultry would be culled in three villages located about one kilometre from the infected sites.
"The mass cull will include business farms and poultry among backyard birds," it said.
In late July an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu killed thousands of chickens at two different sites on a state-owned poultry farm, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Vientiane.
It was Laos' first official outbreak of the deadly virus since 2004, although a case involving a single duck was detected earlier this year.
Vientiane's mayor, Dr Sinlavong Khoutphaithoune, was quoted as saying that although poultry were still dying the contamination was "not severe".
"However, we have to increase precautions in order to protect both life and property," he said.
Laos has reported no human deaths from the bird flu virus so far, which has swept across Asia and beyond in several waves since 2003.
But neighbouring Thailand last month reported its 15th human fatality.
Landlocked Laos borders Vietnam to the east, Thailand to the west and China to the north. The latter three countries have suffered large-scale bird flu outbreaks and human deaths in recent years.
