BANGKOK, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Thai Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan Thursday ordered relevant agencies to intensify their examination on the avian influenza virus in the country's lower North, especially areas having previous experiences of bird flu outbreaks.

    The minister issued the order after the Public Health Ministry confirmed Wednesday that a young man aged 17 who died in Phichit Province recently had been infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus after having direct contact with a dead chicken and not notifying the authorities.

    The victim was the first human bird flu patient in the kingdom during the past one and a half years -- since February 2005.

    Sudarat, who traveled to Phitsunulok Thursday to chair a meeting of heads of livestock and public health offices from seven provinces in the lower North, said she had ordered a thorough examination and monitoring for bird flu in all vulnerable areas previously affected by bird flu outbreaks.

    In areas where poultry die from unknown causes, the living fowls remaining within a one kilometer radius must be culled and samples must be sent for lab tests.

    Implementations in each location must be complete within five days from Thursday, as in the next two months there will be another risk factor of bird flu outbreak in the region -- that is an annual influx of immigrant birds, the minister said.

    Meanwhile, the minister said that she had assigned a vice minister of the ministry and a head of the Livestock Department to remain in Phitsanulok to follow up the bird flu situation and give advice to livestock officials in bird flu-prone areas. Enditem