Hundreds of domestic poultry died in a village in northern Thailand Phet last week, and villagers cooked and ate them without regard to possible bird flu, local medical officials reported yesterday.

Public health officials in the lower northern province of Phichit have renewed precautionary measures against avian flu after hundreds of chickens died from unknown causes.

After visiting Mabkrapao village in Sam Ngam district, Dr. Prachak Wattanakun, a provincial health official, said that hundreds of local poultry had died suspiciously, and that villagers had eaten them while disregarding the potential of avian flu.

Local health officials warned villagers not to eat sick chickens and advised them to use rubber gloves when handling the poultry, dead or alive, to prevent the spread of possible bird flu virus and contracting the disease.

Samples of the dead poultry were sent for laboratory testing, but the results are not yet available, he said.

Anyway, the incident raises questions regarding the effectiveness of the government's anti-bird flu education among rural farm families, observers was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying.

Last year, bird flu was detected at the village,which straddles the shared border of Phichit and Kamphaeng Phet provinces.