Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Bird flu outbreaks continue in South-East Asia, China and Thailand.

Thailand. Three more people with suspected bird-flu have been reported in Phichit, one of the provinces listed by the Thai government as an avian flu 'red zone'. Two were men aged 59 and 86; the other, a boy aged seven. Reportedly all the three were in contact with poultry in an area where hundreds of irregular poultry deaths were reported.

Chiang Mai deputy chief health officer, Surasing Wisarutarat, warned the public not to cook dead chickens; especially, "immigrant workers. They are most likely to opt for dead chickens and risk contracting bird flu," he said.

Elsewhere, two other cases of suspected bird flu in humans have been found. A 67-year-old wildfowl hunter and his 35-year-old son-in-law were admitted to Uttaradit Provincial Hospital on Friday for flu-like symptoms. Both ate a wild bird the hunter had shot.

Still, while Thailand's Department of Livestock Development said that the country had not been hit by an outbreak of the virus, Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, director of the Disease Control Bureau, noted that "it is highly possible the disease will make a comeback" because of heavy rainfall and falling temperatures.

Last week, his department declared six provinces— Phichit, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Nakhon Pathom, Suphan Buri and Kanchanaburi—red zones and began stringent monitoring for bird flu.

Mass deaths of poultry have been reported in five tambons (sub-districts) in the northern province of Phitsanulok, which led livestock officials to cull more than 1,000 fowls to prevent the spread of the disease. Tests are being made on chicken carcasses for evidence of avian flu.

Since the end of 2003, 19 people have been infected in Thailand with 13 deaths, but the last one was in October 2005 and involved a child in Kanchanaburi province.

China. A new bird flu outbreak was reported Saturday near Aksu, a town in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, but it occurred on July 14 killing 3,045 chickens with another 356,976 culled to contain it.

In Changzi County in Shanxi province, an outbreak was announced last month but was officially "under control" as of July 13.

So far there have been 35 outbreaks around the country with more than 25 million birds culled.

Indonesia. The huge territory and lack of information in the population have hampered Indonesian health authorities' efforts to eliminate the bird flu, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Friday.

Many chicken and bird traders and owners are in fact reluctant to kill their infected animals out of ignorance of the danger the virus poses. They also consider ten US cents in compensation per bird as too low.

This month Indonesia has reached the unenviable record of 42 human deaths from the virus. (PB)