The authorities are investigating the deaths of birds at several oil platforms located off Terengganu amid fears of an avian flu outbreak, officials said today.

Veterinary officers are taking samples from the dead birds to test for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu, which has killed at least 30 people in Vietnam and Thailand this year, veterinary services department director-general Hawari Hussein told AFP .

The Terengganu veterinary services department was alerted to the deaths of a large number of birds at the oil platforms by one of the workers there, department director Azizol Mohamad Sharom told the Bernama news agency.

Malaysia's first case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected in August in a village in Kelantan, Terengganu's neighbouring state which also borders Thailand.

It quickly spread to other areas in Kelantan despite intensive efforts by veterinary and health authorities to contain the virus, prompting the government to impose a quarantine on the state, effectively banning the movement of poultry in and out.

No new cases since September

Terengganu, which so far has not seen any cases of bird flu, has been on the alert for a possible outbreak there.

Authorities have screened hundreds of villagers and isolated several with flu-like symptoms in hospital but all have tested negative for the deadly virus.

There had been no new cases of bird flu in birds and poultry since late September but Hawari said the ban on Kelantan would remain.

"We are continuing controls at the border areas. We are watching what's happening on the other side," he said in a reference to Thailand.

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

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

But Singapore agreed to partially lift the ban and resumed importing poultry products from two Malaysian southern states unaffected by bird flu from Sept 30.