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PHNOM PENH : Bird flu has been found in chicken samples taken from a Cambodian village where a toddler died of the virus last week, health officials said Friday.
The outbreak is the second to be reported in two days in Cambodia, where the virus has struck for the fourth time since February after a year without any reported cases.
A three-year-old girl died of the virus March 21 after playing with sick chickens in the village, becoming Cambodia's first bird flu victim this year and the fifth since 2003.
One of the birds on her family's farm in Kompong Speu province's Tuol Prich village, 45 kilometres west of the capital Phnom Penh, tested positive for H5N1, said the agriculture ministry said.
It was previously unknown where she caught the virus from.
The infected chicken was among 95 birds recently tested, the ministry said, adding that health officials would destroy the hundreds of chickens and ducks remaining in the village after a mass die-off earlier this month.
No new human infections have been found, officials said.
The discovery follows another bird flu outbreak reported Thursday in ducks on two family farms in southwestern Cambodia near Vietnam.
The virus has also been found in ducks in the eastern province of Kompong Cham twice since February, triggering the slaughter of hundreds of birds.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for the government to step up its public awareness campaigns, as bird flu remains a mystery to many rural Cambodians.
Most poultry in Cambodia is raised on small farms or in backyards, making it difficult to prevent the spread of the virus.
World Health Organisation figures show that bird flu has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, mostly in Asia. - AFP/ch
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