Cambodia has detected two new outbreaks of the deadly bird flu virus in ducks, just days after the disease resurfaced for the first time in more than four months.

"We have discovered two more outbreaks of bird flu, but it has not infected the people yet," Kao Phal, the director of animal health at the agriculture ministry, told AFP on Friday.

Both the new outbreaks of the H5N1 virus were in Kampong Cham province, just northeast of the capital Phnom Penh, he said.

One outbreak originated with ducks from the region where bird flu was detected on August 12, after a farmer smuggled 2,000 ducks out of the area where authorities were slaughtering birds to prevent the disease from spreading, he said.

Those ducks were taken to Tbong Khmum district, 125 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of the capital, where most of them had died by Friday, Kao Phal said.

Health authorities slaughtered the remaining ducks, and one official was fired for failing to prevent the movement of the birds, he added.

A separate outbreak was detected in nearby Batheay district, where ducks began falling ill on August 12.

Six hundred birds in that district have died or been killed, Kao Phal said.

"We are closely monitoring the situation," he said. "The transport of poultry has been banned in and out of the new outbreak area."

Bird flu has not struck Cambodia as hard as neighboring countries -- only six people have died of the H5N1 strain of the virus since 2003.

But the kingdom is on high alert after new cases were discovered in Laos and Thailand last month.