Myanmar's Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) has announced the recent bird flu outbreak in the country has been brought under control, local media reported Sunday.

The country has so far destroyed 226 chicken and 63 quail farms, culling some 140,000 chickens and 130,000 quails in its efforts to contain bird flu, which broke out in the country's two divisions in late February this year, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar the reported.

Myanmar's full cooperation in the fight against the disease has also been acknowledged by the international community, the report said, adding it has so far received medical and lab equipment worth of more than 500,000 U.S. dollars from international organizations.

Since the outbreak of bird flu in early February, four townships in Sagaing division and six townships in Mandalay division were affected.

After the initial outbreak in these areas, investigation was made on 47 poultry farms with 433 samples being examined, of which 26 from 35 chicken farms were detected with the H5N1 deadly virus, earlier reports said.

As a preventive measure, ban of sale and transport of animals and their products was imposed and restricted zones were designated between 3 kilometers and 7 kilometers from the infected farms and no evidence of human and other animal infections from the H5N1 has been found, the authorities said.

Meanwhile, as one of the preventive measures against probable spreading of the disease, chickens and ducks have also been banned since March 23 in Naypyidaw city, Myanmar's new capital outside Pyinmana.

Poultry farms in Naypyidaw, which is 300 kilometers south of Mandalay, are under examination by the authorities, and no H5N1 avian influenza has so far been found there

In the latest development, chickens and eggs from outside have also been banned from being transported into Yangon. However, free sale of chickens bred within Yangon is allowed, according to livestock farmers.

Source: Xinhua