Some 236 egg hens died on a chicken farm in Si Chiang Mai district last Saturday, which prompted local officials to cull the remaining 1,764 hens at the farm, plus 96 fowls "nearby".

Results from laboratory tests on samples from the Nong Khai hens confirmed yesterday that they had the bird-flu virus, said Pirom.

Officials then set up 24-hour checkpoints to prevent poultry being illegally shifted out of the area, and searches were undertaken for more infections - both human and bird - within a 5-kilometre radius, he said.

Pirom said officials had so far found two outbreaks: the one in Nong Khai and another in Phitsanulok's Muang district on January 15.

Meanwhile, Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin said bird-flu-watch committees were assigned to check 15 "risky" districts - which had either a previous H5N1 outbreak or many poultry farms. He said city officials would hold a meeting on Friday with 58 slaughterhouses, to ensure that the killing of chickens and other birds was being conducted in a clean and proper manner.

Public Health permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot, meanwhile, said no human bird-flu case had been reported this year. Of 126 suspected patients, all were cleared except for 13 people who have results pending.

Seventeen people - all of whom had had contact with sick birds - have died of bird flu in Thailand since the disease was first detected here in 2003.

Disease Control Department head Dr Thawat Suntrajarn said he would announce red-zone disaster areas that would be subject to tough measures if more bird-flu outbreaks were detected and seemed to be spreading.

Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) chief Dr Mongkol Jivasantikarn said a clinical trial by Siriraj Hospital of the new GPO A flu drug on 30 patients had shown good results. The drug had shown the same bioequivalent quality as the imported anti-influenza anti-viral oseltamivir.

He said the GPO would submit the results when it registered the drug with the Food and Drug Administration, which should be completed in 15 days.

Mongkol said the GPO had enough raw materials to produce up to 800,000 tablets and could produce up to 400,000 a day, but production depended on a decision by the Disease Control Department as to how many tablets were needed. The drug can be stored for up two years, so there is no need to produce too many tablets, because the

materials could kept for future need, he said.