The World Bank Group has approved a US$6 million grant to help Cambodia carry out its national plan to counter threats from avian and human influenza, and to strengthen its health system to respond to any possible outbreak in the future.

The grant, provided by the International Development Association (IDA), will be used to finance the Avian and Human Influenza Control and Preparedness Emergency Project (AHICPEP), a World Bank (WB) press statement said

Ducks, rice and people - and not chickens - have emerged as the most significant factors in the spread of avian influenza in Thailand and Vietnam, according to a new study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"Mapping H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza risk in Southeast Asia: ducks, rice and people" also finds that these factors are probably behind persistent outbreaks in other countries such as Cambodia and Laos

Despite major efforts to control the avian influenza in Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus, the situation there remains "grave," the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Tuesday. The bird flu has become "deeply entrenched" in Indonesia, effecting 31 out of 33 provinces according to United Nations estimates.

The virus is endemic in Java, Sumatra, Bali and southern Sulawesi with sporadic outbreaks reported from other areas. In February, five people living in the west of Java, Indonesia's most populous island, died after contracting the H5N1 virus, responsible for outbreaks of bird flu around the world in recent years

Health workers have begun culling of poultry in an attempt to combat a fresh bird flu outbreak in the country's eastern state West Bengal, officials said on Monday. State workers planned to destroy nearly 50,000 domestic birds in two districts where officials found infected poultry.

Culling began in a radius of five kilometers (3.1 miles) around the new area of infection. While 22,400 birds are to be culled in Raghunathganj-II, the culling target in respect of Jiaganj is 27,200 birds

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on its Web site that an 11-year-old Egyptian boy has become the North African nation's 46th infection of bird flu. According to the organization, the boy tested positive on February 26 with the H5N1 strain of the deadly virus that has killed 20 people in the country since it was first discovered in March 2006.

The announcement of the boy from Menoufia governorate, a few hours from Cairo, comes only a day after the ministry of health reported that a 25-year-old woman died as a result of the deadly virus