A total of 377,000 birds have been killed after bird flu virus was found in east China's Jiangsu Province, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus was discovered in Dongtai City and its neighboring Hai'an County in Jiangsu, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

No outbreak of the bird flu was reported in the two areas and their nearby regions, the ministry said.

The ministry said it received reports about H5N1 infection among hens in Dongtai City and Hai'an County on Monday .

Preliminary analysis by the experts with the ministry indicated the virus could have been spread by the birds migrating through the area, and that the virus was a different strand from those usually found in the southern part of the country.

A laboratory with the ministry is currently testing the samples to see if the virus has mutated. The China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center has also dispatched a team of experts to study of origin of the virus.

Local authorities have stopped transport of all poultry and poultry products from the two areas, and were sterilizing the poultry farms in the areas and their nearby regions to prevent thevirus from spreading.

The agriculture ministry has reported the case to the World Organization for Animal Health.

The case occurred only a week after 80,000 chickens were culledin Hong Kong after local health departments confirmed that samples tested positive for the H5 strand of bird flu.

(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2008)