Avian influenza has spread to more than half of Thailand, with 39 provinces reporting confirmed or suspected cases of fresh bird-flu infections.

Last week, the authorities had just 21 provinces under close watch for bird flu, suggesting the virus is spreading rapidly, Thai newspaper the Nation said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, provinces of Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi,Suphan Buri and Kamphaeng Phet have been put on a list of provinces with severe bird-flu problems.

"We are receiving more and more reports of fowl deaths," Jatuporn Kamchuen, the livestock chief of Kanchanaburi's Phanom Thuan district, said Monday. Livestock officials were busy cullingfowl suspected of contracting bird flu.

At the same time, he complained that officials were facing resistance from some villagers who had tried to prevent officials from taking their birds. "We need to raise people's understanding of the situation."

Last week, two residents of Phanom Thuan district became the latest confirmed bird-flu patients in the country. One has died.

As of Monday, three others in Kanchanaburi were on a list of people suspected of catching bird flu. Kanchanaburi public-health chief Surapong Tanthanasrikul said health volunteers were going toareas, where bird-flu infections had been reported to check whether the disease had spread to any other people.

Samart Prasitphol, a senior livestock official in Kanchanaburi,said staff had set up checkpoints to enforce the ban on the movement of birds as a measure to curtail the spread of the deadly disease.

In Kamphaeng Phet, provincial public-health chief Wittaya Supornphan said all community hospitals across the province had been instructed to form teams at the provincial, district, and tambon levels to work round-the-clock in case a report of human infection arises.

"They must provide medical supplies, test kits and protective clothing to personnel who have to work with patients suspected of catching bird flu," Wittaya said.

He added that state and private hospitals were working closely with local administrative bodies to control the outbreak.

In Nakhon Pathom, Dr Pinij Hiranchote, director of the provincial hospital, disclosed that there was a suspected case of human-infection in the central province.

"We have kept him under close medical supervision," he said.

In Phitsanulok, provincial livestock chief Wannee Santamanas said more than 3,400 fowl had been culled in Bang Rakam district alone after some died suspiciously en masse.

"We are now waiting for the lab-test results," she said.

Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said there were only 12 laboratories outside Bangkok that could determine within 24 hours whether a person has caught bird flu. He has instructed the Medical Sciences Department to set up mobile labs, which couldbe sent to conduct tests in areas where outbreaks of bird flu havebeen reported.

Paijit Warachit, who heads the department, said the mobile labs should be ready to begin operations within 10 days. "We plan to dispatch the mobile labs to Kanchanaburi and Kamphaeng Phet first," he said. Enditem