Bird flu forces Bangladesh to cull chickens

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh culled some 6,000 chickens after bird flu infected three more farms in the northern part of the country, officials said on Friday.

"The chickens were buried over the last two days after H5N1 virus was detected at three farms in Dinajpur, Jaipurhat and Lalmonirhat districts," an official of the livestock department said.

Bird flu was first detected near the capital in March and has since spread, mostly to northern districts.

Nineteen out of Bangladesh's 64 districts have been affected by the virus, forcing authorities to cull 268,000 chickens and destroy nearly three million eggs.

There have been no cases of human infection.