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YANGON : Authorities in Myanmar have slaughtered more than 76,200 chickens and quail after the country's first outbreak of bird flu swept through poultry markets earlier this month, state media has reported.
Tens of thousands of quail eggs have also been destroyed in a bid to contain the deadly H5N1 virus, which was found in birds in the central town of Mandalay, 700 kilometers (450 miles) north of Yangon, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The slaughter of birds on 120 farms around Mandalay has now stopped, the paper said, adding that no human infections were reported.
It did not say if the authorities indicated that bird flu had been contained, but said restrictions on the movement of poultry to markets remained in place.
"Further occurrence of the disease can be stopped at the farms," it said.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) confirmed the first outbreak of bird flu in Myanmar on March 16,
Myanmar, one of the world's most isolated and impoverished nations, sought international help to contain the spread of the lethal virus, with the FAO and the World Health Organization sending experts to Mandalay.
The WHO said it had also given Myanmar's health ministry enough of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to treat 100 bird flu patients.
Bird flu has killed more than 100 people worldwide, mostly in Asia. Experts fear the H5N1 strain of the virus could cause a global pandemic if it mutates into a form easily transmissible between humans.
- AFP
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