The H5N1 virus has been found in poultry in Uthai Thani, a northern province located 220 kilometers away from the capital Bangkok.

“On November 3, around 200 backyard chicken began dying after falling ill in a short period of time,” said Sakchai Sriboonsue, director general of the livestock department.

“We were told two days later today the official test have confirmed that it’s H5N1,” he added.

Thailand is known as the world’s fourth-largest exporter of poultry. It has to slaughter millions of birds to stop the progress of the bird flu virus that was found in poultry in January this year.

After that the country had been declared free of H5N1.

According to Thailand’s public health ministry, no human-form of bird flu has been found since August 2006 when the last case was confirmed.

Until now, there are 25 confirmed human cases of bird flu, in which 17 have passed away.