Bird flu cases of the H5 variety have been detected in Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula, the Interfax news agency said Saturday, citing the agriculture ministry.

Officials with the ministry said the H5 virus was discovered among poultry in the regions of Sovetskyi and Nizhnegorsky in Crimea.

Samples would be sent to labs in Britain and Italy for further checking to see if the virus is of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has killed nearly 70 people in Asia since 2003.

Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Olexander Baranovsky told state television that scores of domestic poultry had died in three regions of the peninsula and tests were being carried out to determine the death's cause.

Experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a new type, which could be easily transmitted from human to human and cause a pandemic.

Source: Xinhua