Thailand checks dead chickens for deadly flu virus

AFP, July, 2006

BANGKOK (AFP) — Thailand has said that a group of chickens has died of bird flu, but experts were still running tests to determine if the deadly H5N1 virus or a weaker strain had killed them.

"Lab results have confirmed that the H5 virus were found in 20 samples collected from Pichit province, but we are still in the process of determining whether it was the H5N1 virus," Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said.

Several strains of the H5 type of flu virus can infect poultry. But scientists only fear one particular strain identified as H5N1, which has killed 14 people in Thailand since 2003.

Health experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form that is transmitted more easily between humans, marking the first stage ...