A deadly bird flu virus, which has killed 29 Asians this year, has reappeared in Cambodia and the government is deeply worried because villagers ate birds that had died of it, officials said in Phnom Penh Wednesday. 

People in this village just outside the capital Phnom Penh, including the owner of a farm where 5,000 chickens died in two days, said they took dead birds, cooked and ate them.

Experts say eating chicken that died of the bird flu is safe, provided it is cooked to an internal temperature of at least 70°C.

All those who have died of the H5N1 virus, which has also recurred in Thailand and Viet Nam in recent weeks as well as striking in Malaysia for the first time, were infected by the virus from handling birds that had died of it.

"I am very worried the return of the bird flu disease could spread to humans as Cambodia's poor people still do not understand the danger," said Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun.

Scientists confirmed on Tuesday that the H5N1 virus, which has killed 20 Vietnamese and nine Thais since it spread rapidly across much of Asia early this year, had killed the chickens at the farm of villager Hun Neary, Chan Sarun said.

Yesterday, workers in protective clothing dug deep pits to bury the carcasses and sprayed the farm.

But some villagers had already carried away dead birds.

"My whole family ate it last night, but now I am afraid of being sick," said Hun Neary's 33-year-old neighbor, Poun Sophea.

Officials were scouring the area for dead chickens taken from the farm and confiscating them for burial.

This year, Cambodia culled several thousand poultry when the bird flu virus struck in five of its 24 provinces.

A farm near the Cambodian capital was closed after about 2,300 chickens died of bird flu -- apparently the first cases of the disease in the country following an epidemic in Asia earlier this year.

The remaining 2,200 birds at the farm, located about 5 kilometers outside Phnom Penh, were destroyed yesterday and earlier this week, said Hun Sokha, the farm's owner.

Bird flu was found in 12 areas of Cambodia during the epidemic. There were no human victims in the country, but more than 30,000 chickens, ducks and other fowl were slaughtered to prevent the disease from spreading.

Moreover, the government has banned the importation of birds and bird products from countries that have been hit by the virus.

(China Daily September 23, 2004)