Thousand chickens were culled in the Nanhai district of Foshan in south China's Guangdong province, local authority said on Saturday.

After 114 chickens abnormally died on Thursday in Jinhuaxin Market in Liwan district of neighbouring Guangzhou, Nanhai killed 2,000 chickens on Friday though tests found the chickens were in normal condition, said an official at a press conference.

The culled chickens belonged to a vendor in the "Sanniao" market of Nanhai who had sold chickens to the Jinhuaxin Market. All the 82,643 chickens in the market has been tested negative to the bird flu virus, said the official, adding the "Sanniao" market was shut down on Friday for operating without licence.

He Rucheng, deputy head of Nanhai District Agriculture bureau, denied the rumor that two people in Nanhai got bird flu after eating chickens.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2008)