Caretaker Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said yesterday that the Animal Epidemic Act would be enforced to punish those who were uncooperative with the authorities.

Livestock Development and Health Department officials have been instructed to go from door to door in Suphan Buri, Kanchanaburi and Nakhon Pathom to spread the word on how to prevent avian flu, she said. Those provinces are considered most at risk and have witnessed repeated poultry epidemics during August, when the annual rainy season is at its height.

The northern provinces will be visited next in October.

No new bird-flu case has been reported since the country's first bird-flu fatality in seven months was recorded on Wednesday when a teenage boy in Phichit lost his battle against the virus, Sudarat said.

As a preventive measure, Phichit and its adjoining provinces of Phitsanulok, Sukhothai and Uttaradit have been ordered to cull all poultry, beef up surveillance and register all fighting cocks.

Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, said state hospitals had put 112 suspected bird-flu patients from 14 provinces under close medical supervision while waiting for the results of laboratory blood tests.

Phichit had the most patients, with 75, followed by Sukhothai with 14 and Kanchanaburi with five.

Nakhon Sawan and Suphan Buri each had three patients, while Bangkok and Phetchabun were each home to two patients. Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Maha Sarakham and Uthai Thani each had one suspected case.

"Blood tests on other patients showed that they just had the flu, not bird flu," Prat said. Following the confirmed bird-flu fatality, 37 people in the teenage boy's village, including three members of his family, are being monitored, but none has shown any bird-flu symptoms.

In Angthong's Wiset Chai Chan district, fowl in a village in Tambon Sao Rong Hai have perished mysteriously, former village headman Samnao Pinwiset said. The carcasses were promptly burned or buried, he said.

They reportedly had swollen faces, stood around drowsily, developed seizures and finally expired. Each household has lost 40 to 100 chickens. Residents also noticed birds dropping dead daily.

Officials have sprayed disinfectant around the area and are keeping a strict watch for the virus, livestock-development official Surachon Tangwiwat said, adding that bird-flu cases had yet to be reported.