Some 300,000 chickens in Thailand's northeastern province of Nakhon Phantom will be culled Sunday after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected there, caretaker Deputy Agriculture Minister Adorn Piengket announced Sunday.

Adorn said that lab tests confirmed that the strain of bird flu virus was detected in some of 2,200 chickens that died in the farms in Nakhon Phantom province last week.

As a result, the ministry ordered the culling of 300,000 chickens in 78 farms in the province.