An Indonesian poultry worker has tested positive for bird flu in the country's first human case of the disease.
The worker on the island of Sulawesi is showing no symptoms of the disease, but blood tests show he was exposed to the H5N1 strain of the disease and has produced antibodies to it, said a health ministry official.
The bird virus has swept through poultry populations in large swaths of east and south east Asia. Tens of millions of chickens have either died or been slaughtered, while 38 people have died in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four from Cambodia since late 2003.
Health experts have warned that Indonesia - which allocates only a tiny percentage of its gross domestic product to the health sector - may struggle to contain a major outbreak. Indonesia has reported scores of outbreaks of bird flu at poultry farms across the country.
The infected worker was one of several dozen people whose blood was tested for the virus in a laboratory in Hong Kong as part of a routine surveillance programme.
AP