A 30-year-old man in Thailand's eastern province of Rayong is suspected of having contracted bird flu and is under close surveillance in hospital there, according to provincial health authorities.

He was diagnosed with flu-like symptoms on Nov. 7.

Although he has no direct contact with live chickens or with chicken carcases, he ate a soft boiled egg, became ill, and when he went to hospital his blood sample was sent to a laboratory for testing.

Meanwhile, laboratory test results of a nine-year-old girl in Ranod district of the southern Songkhla Province show no indication of the H5N1 avian flu virus, according to the Thai NewsAgency.

There was fear earlier that the child was infected with the H5N1 virus because she had been in direct contact with a chicken which died of an unknown cause.

As Ranod district is the biggest producer of duck eggs in the country's southern region, public health officials have conducted random checks at 90 duck farms to ensure there is no outbreak of bird flu in the area.