Two new bird flu outbreaks have been detected in Kelantan, which remained under quarantine to check the spread of the disease, veterinary officials said.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu was detected in 11 chicken carcasses in two villages and the "culling of all poultry within the infected area would begin immediately," the veterinary department's director-general Hawari Hussein said in a statement.

So far, 7,079 birds have been destroyed in Kelantan in just over a month and authorities have set up 24-hour road blocks at border check points to enforce a blanket ban on poultry movement in and out of the state.

The entire state was placed under quarantine Sept 15 after the bird flu virus was found to have jumped outside a 10-kilometre quarantine zone around the first village hit by the H5N1 strain. The strain is responsible for 28 human deaths in Thailand and Vietnam this year.

Officials say the disease was first brought into Malaysia by fighting cocks that had been exposed to the virus in Thailand and the new outbreaks were caused by the continued smuggling of chicken meat.

Huge losses

Thailand and Malaysia this week agreed to increase cooperation to tackle bird flu along their common border, including setting up border quarantine posts and a warning system to alert their neighbour of any new outbreak, following a meeting between officials.

The two countries are among six Asian nations hit by a second wave of bird flu since July.

The World Health Organisation has warned that the lethal H5N1 virus is endemic in the region and fears it could mutate into a highly contagious form that triggers a global human flu pandemic.

The disease has cost daily losses of up to RM10 million to Malaysia's poultry industry following import bans by neighbouring Singapore and other countries.

But officials said Singapore has agreed to partially lift the ban next month and resume imports from two Malaysian southern states unaffected by bird flu.