Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar broke its silence Friday about an outbreak of bird flu in its biggest city Yangon, saying wild crows and sparrows may have carried the H5N1 virus to a poultry farm.

The government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar carried the first official news of the outbreak, which authorities had reported Wednesday to the World Organisation for Animal Health in Paris.

“Officials found that the virus might spread to chickens from native crows and sparrows that frequented the farm buildings, whose partly damaged walls have hollows for the wild birds to enter,” the newspaper said.

“Chickens on the firm were culled and buried, and the whole farm was sprayed with pesticide,” it said.

Myanmar’s livestock department told AFP on Wednesday that the virus had killed 68 birds, while 1,500 others were slaughtered to prevent the disease’s spread.

The outbreak was detected on a small farm in a residential neighbourhood in Yangon’s western suburbs. The paper said that authorities had restricted movements within a one-kilometre radius of the farm.

Poultry trading has been banned within 10 kilometers (six miles) of the farm for three weeks, it said.

State media made no mention of another suspected outbreak that authorities were monitoring in Insein Township, north of Yangon.

Myanmar had declared itself bird-flu free in September after months without any new cases of the disease following an outbreak around the central city of Mandalay in March 2006.
No human cases have been announced in the country.

Although Myanmar has one of the world’s worst health care systems, the United Nations has praised its vigilance in monitoring for bird flu.