Hanoi (Vietnam), March 8. (AP): Bird flu has struck two chicken farms in Vietnam's Capital Hanoi, animal health officials said on Wednesday, marking the latest outbreaks reported in recent weeks across the country.

Several chicks died suddenly on two farms in the rural district of Dong Anh on Sunday and authorities have slaughtered the remaining 1,950 chicks, said Hoang Gia Tuc, director of the district animal health station. None of the chicks, aged 10 to 20 days old, were vaccinated.

Test results from a Government laboratory showed the chicks were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health.

Tuc said, local animal health workers disinfected the two farms and banned the movement of poultry to and from the area.

Bird flu outbreaks have been reported in two northern provinces of Hai Duong and Ha Tay recently. Outbreaks were also reported last week in the southern province of Vinh Long.

Vietnam went without reporting a bird flu outbreak for a year, until the disease killed and forced the slaughter of about 40,000 birds in eight southern Mekong Delta provinces since January.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 167 people worldwide, including 42 in Vietnam, since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

It remains hard for people to catch, but experts worry the virus might mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.