Police near the border with Thailand today seized 505 boxes of frozen chicken being smuggled into the country a week after Malaysia announced an outbreak of deadly bird flu in Kelantan.

Police officers swooped on a van at Kubang Pak Hitam in Kelantan and confiscated the poultry worth RM30,000, police spokesman Ahmad Zabidin Mohamad Hasnan was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

The driver and another suspect fled the scene, Ahmad Zabidin said. The confiscated chicken was handed over to the veterinary department, which said it would be destroyed.

On Tuesday two suspects were arrested for attempting to smuggle 30,000 chickens into Thailand.

The government announced last week that it had detected the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in a village in Kelantan, and beefed up security on the Thai border.

Poultry industry hit hard

The authorities say the outbreak was restricted to one village and that the two affected birds were recently taken to Thailand for a cock fight.

Hundreds of birds in the village and surrounding area have been culled and veterinary officials have launched a nationwide alert for bird flu, inspecting poultry farms, commercial enterprises and bird parks.

The disease killed eight people in Thailand and 19 in Vietnam earlier this year and the World Health Organisation fears the virus could mutate into a highly contagious form that triggers the next global human flu pandemic.

Malaysia's Federation of Lifestock Farmers Associations said the poultry industry was losing RM10 million daily following import bans by Singapore and other countries and urged the government to give financial aid to affected farmers.