Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has ordered a nationwide inspection of poultry farms in a move to prevent the bird flu virus from spreading.

``All poultry in any farm will be slaughtered as soon as we find any large number of dead birds in that area,'' Thaksin said today in his weekly radio address.

The latest measures will be carried out during the cool season from November to January, when the virus normally spreads, Thaksin said. Fighting cock competitions will be stopped until the cool season ends, he said.

On Oct. 20, the government reported the country's first human death from bird flu this year, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 13 since January 2004. The spread of bird flu threatens to reduce Thailand's exports of poultry.

The son of the man who died this week from bird flu is recovering from the illness, and will soon be discharged from a hospital in Bangkok, Thaksin said. The seven-year-old boy contacted bird flu while helping his father cook the infected chicken, and it wasn't a human-to-human transmission, he said.

Health officials say people working with birds are at a higher risk of contracting the illness, through contact with the feces, raw meat or exhaled air of infected birds. Thailand has killed more than 40 million poultry, including chicken and ducks, since last year.

`Limited Transmissions'

The World Health Organization said in a statement last week it has ``no convincing evidence'' of sustained human-to-human transmission, though it suspects ``limited transmission between humans'' in cases in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Thailand is forecast to be Asia's biggest chicken meat exporter this year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, selling 270,000 metric tons overseas. Thailand exports cooked chicken products since its two biggest export markets, Japan and the European Union, banned raw poultry from the kingdom when it first confirmed bird flu in January 2004.

Separately, Thaksin said the government is expected to buy about 9 million tons of unmilled rice from the nation's farmers during the November-through-February harvest. The price of rice offered by the government will rise as much as 8 percent to 10,000 baht ($244) a ton from a year earlier to help farmers cope with rising costs for fuel and fertilizer, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok at anguyen@bloomberg.net; Dominic G. Diongson in Bangkok at ddiongson@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 22, 2005 00:27 EDT