CAIRO (Reuters) - Two Egyptians have tested positive forthe deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, a day after an Egyptian womandied of the disease, Egypt's health ministry said on Thursday.

"There are two cases today, one in Damietta and one inMenoufia... Today lab results confirmed that they are infectedwith bird flu," Amr Kandeel, head of communicable diseasecontrol at the health ministry, told Reuters.

The two new cases, both of whom are currently receivingtreatment in hospital, bring the total number of human bird flucases in Egypt to 41, Kandeel added.

State news agency MENA said the Menoufia case was22-year-old Nora Aboul Abbas Mohamed, but gave no details forthe second case.

On Wednesday, 25-year-old Ola Younis died of bird flu inBeni Suef province, south of Cairo, on the same day she wasdiagnosed as being infected with the highly pathogenic virus.

She was the 16th fatality from bird flu in Egypt.

The H5N1 virus which causes bird flu tends to lie dormantduring the summer and Egyptian officials had hoped that aftertwo years of outbreaks it would not re-occur this winter.

But John Jabbour, an official at the World HealthOrganization, said the new cases were not surprising.

"The agent is there... Since July we've had no human casesand many things calmed down, so people returned to dealing withlive birds as usual. Since the virus is there, we expect tohave human cases. It's not a surprise at all," Jabbour said.

MENA reported Thursday that veterinary authorities inSharkia province had culled 12,000 chickens after tests foundthe flock had been infected with bird flu.

Most of those who have fallen ill in Egypt were reported tohave had contact with sick or dead household birds, primarilyin northern Egypt where the weather is cooler than in thesouth.

The government still finds it hard to enforce restrictionson the movement and sale of live poultry.

The death toll is the highest for any country outside Asiaand could reflect the high population density in agriculturalparts of Egypt.

Experts fear the bird flu virus might mutate or combinewith the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark adeadly pandemic which could circle the globe and kill millions.

Around five million households in Egypt depend on poultryas a main source of food and income and the government has saidthis makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated.(Reporting by Aziz El-Kaissouni; Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)