BANGKOK, Feb. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The Thai government Thursday announced two more suspected human bird flu infection cases, but no confirmed or suspected infection patients died in the day.

    Charal Trinwuthipong, director-general of the Disease Control Department of the Public Health Ministry, said the two added the number of suspected patients to 19.

    One is a two-year-old boy living in Khon Kaen province, and the other is a 67-year-old man in central Chainat province.

    Thailand has reported five confirmed human bird flu death cases so far. Meanwhile, among the 19 listed as suspected bird flu cases, 12 have died.

    Thai government spokesman Chakrapob Penkaur also announced Thursday morning that 25,901,365 chickens from 40,043 farms all over the country had been slaughtered.

    And only five of the nation's 76 provinces, including Bangkok and Nakornrachasima were still on the list of "red" outbreak provinces.

    According to the rule of the Thai government, in the control zone chickens must be culled within a five-kilometer radius of where the virus was found and chickens may not be moved outside a 50-kilometer radius.

    Thailand's poultry industry, the world's fourth largest, has suffered from the bird flu outbreak.

    Thailand exported about 500,000 tons of chicken worth 52 billion baht (1.3 billion US dollars) in 2003. The government promised to control the outbreak within February.

    Chakrapob said that the government would declare on Friday that the country had passed the controlling period of bird flu outbreak to the recovering phase. Enditem