Bangladesh ? Farm workers cried and protested as Bangladesh continued to slaughter chickens Saturday as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, officials said.

“We’re going ahead with our plans,” the official told The Associated Press by phone on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

He declined to provide details on how many chickens were culled Saturday, saying it could cause panic among people.

The government said Friday that laboratory tests in Bangladesh and Thailand confirmed that a poultry farm at Savar, run by the state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines, was infected by the H5N1 virus.

Authorities had culled all 30,000 chickens at the farm after many died of a disease first thought to be Exotic Newcastle – a fatal respiratory virus in birds – but confirmed Friday as H5N1.

Workers culled another 8,000 chickens at five privately operated farms near the capital, Dhaka, on Friday as a precaution.

The H5N1 outbreak is the first in impoverished Bangladesh and could devastate its poultry industry, which comprises about 150,000 farms with an annual turnover of about $750 million, officials said.