Even though there was no outbreak of the virus in Chiang Rai, local livestock officials and volunteers have inspected citizens of Laos, who crossed the Mekong River between the two countries to Chiang Saen district in Chiang Rai to buy food, as part of strict measures against bird flu, the official Thai News Agency reported.

Thai officials said the surveillance would help prevent an outbreak that could hurt Chiang Rai's economy which relies heavily on tourism.

Provincial officials have also conducted house-to-house checks to look for sick chickens and persons with flu-like symptoms, according to local sources.

In an attempt to help Laos fight bird flu, Chiang Rai's office of livestock development has supplied the neighboring country with chemicals to be sprayed in villages with poultry farms.

Laos has reported an outbreak of bird flu, with some 2,000 chickens dead from the deadly H5N1 virus late July, while in Thailand the epidemic was confirmed in several provinces, including northeastern Nakhon Phanom province bordering Laos.

In the latest fatality from bird flu, a 27-year-old man died in the northern province of Uthai Thani last Thursday, the country's 16th victim since the outbreak of the disease in Thailand early 2004 and the second this year after a 17-year-old boy died late July.