TOKYO, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The bird flu virus detected at a chicken processor in central Japan's Hyogo Prefecture was confirmed to be of the H5N1 strain, which was also found last weekat a farm in its neighboring Kyoto Prefecture where the chickens were raised, the National Institute of Animal Health said Wednesday.

    The institute will conduct further tests on the virus' genes todetermine whether it is the same as the H5N1 strain found in west Japan's Yamaguchi and Oita prefectures, as well as South Korea, and blamed for the human deaths in Vietnam and Thailand.

    The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the same day that the farm in the town of Tamba, Kyoto Prefecture, operated by Asada Nosan Co., had not asked a veterinarian to checkon the birds even after the chickens started dying in large numbers.

    The ministry criticized the farm's claim that the tests it conducted on the dead birds prompted no suspicion of bird influenza.

    The ministry said none of the farm's employees was a qualified veterinarian. Asada Nosan has admitted during investigations by the prefecture that no veterinarian was involved.

    Chickens at the farm began dying in large numbers on Feb. 20, at the rate of over 1,000 a day. Last Thursday, over 7,000 died but the farm did not notify the prefecture. It even sold about 15,000 live chickens Feb. 25-26 despite the large numbers of deaths.

    The remaining chicken were slaughtered and packed into bags to be buried.

    Bird flu was detected at a farm in Yamaguchi Prefecture in January as Japan's first case in 79 years. A total of 34,000 chickens died or were killed. A second outbreak killed seven chickens at a household in Oita Prefecture. Enditem