The government will launch a chicken-eating campaign in a bid to restore public confidence after poultry sales plunged following a bird flu outbreak, a minister said today.

Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said chicken breeders and traders have reported that sales are down by as much as 40 percent since the outbreak which erupted in villages in Gombak, north of Kuala Lumpur, last month.

"The drop in sales may be due to the people's fear to eat chicken but... fried chicken or chicken cooked at 70 degrees is safe for consumption because all the germs or virus will be destroyed at that temperature," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

It did not provide any details about when the campaign would start. Agriculture ministry officials could not be reached for more information.

Muhyiddin said the government has also banned the slaughtering of chicken at wet markets located within a kilometre of the bird flu-affected areas.

Illegal cock fighting

The Veterinary Services Department has warned that illegal cock fighting is a major problem for Malaysia as it tries to fend off the threat of avian influenza.

"Many of these birds are brought into the country from affected places like Thailand, where fighting cocks are bred," department deputy director-general Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

"All it takes is just one infected bird for the disease to spread."

Abdul Aziz said he had learned that cock fights were staged in the capital every Saturday.

"This is very dangerous. These birds spread the H5N1 virus faster than chickens," he said.

Last month the country confirmed its first outbreak among birds in more than a year after the deadly H5N1 virus was detected in 40 free-range chickens found dead in four villages in the capital.

No human cases of bird flu have so far been reported in Malaysia.