Thailand brought in troops and prisoners to kill millions of chickens in a bid to stop the spread of highly contagious bird flu on the same day as Indonesia confirmed the disease had been found among its chicken flocks.
A Thai butcher is thought to have died and at least four others are being treated for bird flu while in Vietnam six people have lost their lives to the disease.
One hundred prisoners and 400 soldiers have been drafted into Suphan Buri province northwest of Bangkok because farm workers are unwilling to come in contact with poultry and fowl which pass the disease onto humans.
All chickens in the province, a major area of production in a Thai industry which raises one billion chickens a year and earns €1.2 billion in exports, will be killed.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has met farmers has promised farmers in the province compensation and assistance in reviving their business.
Thailand fears international import bans will devastate the industry.
China is the latest country to ban imports of Thai chicken after the US and EU announced a stop to the trade last week.
The Thais are denying claims they covered up the outbreak is burying many of the chickens alive in the rush to prevent a further spread among bird flocks.
Experts are montitoring the situation in South East Asian and Far Eastern countries after its emergence in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Six people have died in Vietnam from the disease.
"There's no denying the disease is spreading," Mr Anton Rychener, Vietnam representative for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, said.
Vietnam's latest known human case was an eight-year-old girl in Ho Chi Minh City.
The World Health Organisation says if the avian virus combines with a human flu virus, the consequences could be devastating - a new strain which could sweep through a human population with no immunity to it.
The main problem now is how to stop it spreading, with the WHO calling the near-simultaneous outbreaks "historically unprecedented".
Meanwhile, Indonesia has confirmed an outbreak of bird flu among millions of chickens, but said the disease had not spread to humans.
Further tests will be conducted to see if the virus is the same strain as the one that has swept through other countries in the region.
The strain has only affected chickens in Inodnesia to date.
Agencies