BANGKOK, Nov 2 (TNA) - A government committee in charge of solving bird flu crisis claimed Monday it had successfully contained the outbreaks in Thailand in the past month, but acknowledged a possibility that the virus has developed capacity to transmit from human to human.

Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang, who chairs the committee, concluded the results of the government´s 30-day-war on bird flu virus at a meeting of parties concerned held at the  Government House yesterday.

创The spread of the virus during the past 30 days receded more quickly than earlier, and we have brought it under control because our officials have acted promptly,创 said Mr. Chaturon.

He also praised 76 governors nationwide for their hard work in growing awareness against bird flu virus among local people who have taken preventive measures.

创As a result, there has been only one additional patient from the virus,创said the deputy prime minister.

However, he warned of possible increase in the outbreak during the cold months from now until February next year.

创The governors will intensify the bird flu control by drawing more villagers to volunteers in the monitoring for the virus," said Mr. Chaturon.

He said villagers must not let their home grown chickens roam around, but keep them in controlled areas or cages.

He said they should also wash their hands often.

He said the committee has not made any conclusion on the bird flu in ducks, but insisted that the government compensate farmers if there was a need to cull ducks.

He said he expected to have a clearer picture on the matter within the next two weeks.

创Over one million of volunteers and officials have conducted a house-to-house check nationwide in the past month, and that led us to prevent the spread more effectively. I think we can call this a success when we could scale down the outbreaks and not many more people were infected, 创 said Mr. Chaturon.

He acknowledged the possibility of the human-to-human transmission, as one mother and an aunt died from allegedly contracting the virus from their dying daughter, and nephew who were believed to carry bird flu virus.

创We could not confirm it for sure because the girl´s body were already cremated,创 said the deputy prime minister.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thawat Suntrajarn, the Director-General of the Department of Disease Control, said that officials have strictly monitored the virus in the past month, but the number of patients did not increase.

创We found only one more case who did not get it from infected chickens, but animal dung. This is showing us that we could control the spread of the virus,创 he said.

According to the Director-General of the Department of Livestock Development, Yukol Limlamthong, at least 65 percent of infected chickens were local breeds, 12.48 percent were farmed egg-ducks and 7.5 percent were meat-ducks and the rest were fighting cocks and pedigreed chickens.

创We are continuing the strict monitor for bird flu in animals in the winter as to prevent it from spreading,创 said Mr. Yukhon.

Dr. Khamnuan Ung-Chusak, the Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology, said that there have been three risk factors to contact the disease.

创From studying all 17 bird flu patients, I found nine of them contracted the virus from touching infected chickens, another 6 did not have any contact with dead animal but lived near infected areas, and the rest two might have been human-to-human cases,创 he said.