DHAKA, June 12 (Reuters) - Bird flu has spread to another district in Bangladesh, forcing authorities to cull 5,000 more chickens, officials said on Tuesday. The infected chickens were buried after the H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected at a farm in Rangpur district, 450 km (280 miles) northwest of the capital, Dhaka. With the latest cull, some 165,000 chickens have now been slaughtered and nearly 1.6 million eggs destroyed on 63 farms in 13 districts since the virus was first detected near Dhaka in March. There have been no reported cases of human infection. More than 100,000 farms have been inspected and some 125 million chickens vaccinated since the outbreak emerged, a fisheries and livestock ministry statement said. Bangladesh has over 125,000 poultry firms producing 250 million broilers and six billion eggs annually. About four million Bangladeshis are directly or indirectly associated with poultry farming.
