The bird flu virus found in Ukraine has been confirmed as the deadly strain of H5N1, a Russian agriculture official said Friday.

"This is so-called Asian strain H5N1 that poses a potential threat to man," Russian chief agriculture inspector Sergei Dankvert told the Itar-Tass news agency, referring to the virus found in Ukraine and sent to the All-Russia Research Institute of Animal Protection for testing.

Ukraine is also waiting for results of laboratory tests in Britain next week.

Ukraine recorded its first case of bird flu Saturday and the disease has spread rapidly across parts of the Crimea peninsula in the past week. Ukrainian officials said Thursday the bird flu virus had been confirmed in eight residential areas of the Crimea, where more than 30,000 fowl were already culled.

By Wednesday, the country's Emergency Situations Ministry had seized about 28,000 birds in house-to-house checks in villages in a sealed-off exclusion zone.

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

The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has claimed the lives of more than 70 people in Asia.

Source: Xinhua