The Philippine authorities said Monday that the Philippines is still free from bird flu as test results in a duck farm near Manila have turned out to be negative.

Confirmatory tests on blood samples from ducks in a backyard farm in Bulacan north of Manila that were initially reported as infected by a low-risk flu strain have turned out to be negative for the virus causing the deadly avian influenza, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) said.

BAI Director Jose Molina said that the results of confirmatory tests from the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) showed that there was "no active infection" in the ducks as no virus was found among the samples.

"From the test results, we can conclude the following: there is no H5N1 nor any HPAI in the areas," said BAI in a memorandum to local officials.

H5N1 is one of the strains of avian influenza virus and HPAI is a highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Source: Xinhua