Moscow: Russia's agriculture ministry confirmed a bird flu outbreak in a village in the Far East region of Primorye which was quarantined after scores of chickens died.

"In two days, 28 out of 42 hens and guineafowl died on a farm" in the village of Vozdvizhenka, 110 kilometres north of Vladivostok, the ministry's veterinary control unit said in a statement yesterday.

The dead birds had been incinerated, it added.

A regional laboratory made the discovery after testing samples taken from sick birds, and a national laboratory was due to determine if it was the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

Authorities cordoned off the village, killed all other fowl on the farm and vaccinated birds in the village and nearby areas, the ministry said.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 230 people worldwide since late 2003.

Experts fear the virus, which can be spread from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people and spark a deadly global pandemic.

Source : PTI