Thai authorities are taking precautions for the spread of bird flu following a fatality in neighbouring Cambodia.

The Department of Disease Control said border security will be intensified in the eastern province of Sa Kaeo after reports that an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia's Prey Veng around 550 kilometres away had died from bird flu.

The child was hospitalised on February 16 for a 39C-fever, sore throat, and coughs, but died on February 22, shortly after she tested positive for the A H5N1 virus.

Her father also caught the disease, but was released after isolation at the Prey Veng hospital as he showed only mild symptoms, Cambodia's Health Ministry said.

It added that both father and daughter had 'been infected from poultry at their village, and there is no indication or evidence that there was infection from father to daughter.'

The girl's death sparked concern among locals and officials, prompting the tightening of border controls in Sa Kaeo.

Sa Kaeo Provincial Public Health official Prapas Pookduang said authorities are preparing for a potential outbreak by monitoring patient referrals between Cambodia and Thailand, providing hospital personnel with PPE when dealing with pneumonia patients, and monitoring the transport of poultry.

The provincial Public Health Coordinating Committee held a meeting on February 27 to monitor the situation.

Wiboon Srimankongtham, head of the Sa Kaeo Animal Quarantine Station, has ordered heightened surveillance to prevent the smuggling of livestock into Thailand. All vehicles will be sprayed with disinfectant at the checkpoint during inspection, he said.

The ASEAN Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Network has also urged member nations to be on high alert.

An outbreak of avian flu has been decimating wild and domestic bird populations in several parts of the globe since late 2021. Infection among mammals, including minks, foxes, seals, and bears, is also rising, but transmission to humans remains rare, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a news conference in February, told reporters: 'The recent spillover to mammals needs to be monitored closely.

'For the moment, WHO assesses the risk to humans as low.'

From 2003 to 2014, the WHO tallied 457 deaths out of 870 bird flu infections.

There have been no bird flu cases in Thailand in 14 years.