Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan yesterday revealed government plans, including "disease-watch" zones and transport checks, to prevent any outbreak of the bird-flu virus before the full onset of the rainy season.

The strategy also includes intense surveillance and disinfection of farms and communities that house domestic fowl.

Sudarat was speaking at Bangkok's Koh Don community in Soi Ramkamhaeng 118, where she was checking on disinfectant-spraying.

She said the ministry already had agencies to closely watch for the H5N1 virus and these would step up monitoring because rainfall and increased humidity helped incubate and spread many diseases, including the bird-flu virus.

Since the ministry's cleansing scheme began in May, officials have found more areas, such as this

community with about 3,000 birds, that have not been disinfected, she said.

Residents were told to keep their fowl in net compounds away from residential areas and were warned against touching dead birds with their bare hands, she said.

They were urged not to conceal suspicious illnesses and deaths in poultry but to inform livestock authorities or pubic-health officials immediately.

Sudarat said that although the monitoring of areas at risk and the collection of 46,000 samples for bird-flu testing had not so far revealed any evidence of the virus, the ministry considered flood-prone provinces "disease-watch" zones.

The special zones, many of tehm with repeated cases of fowl disease, include Phichit, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, Suphan Buri, Angthong, Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi and Nakhon Pathom provinces.

Sudarat said the deputy director-general of the Livestock Development Department will supervise and cooperate with

governors and the local people in the zones considered "disease-watch".

Control over poultry transport will also be tightened, with new checkpoints in 21 lower-northern, upper-central and western provinces.

Anyone transporting animals must inform officials of their plans in advance, she said.