BUDAPEST, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Serbia has suspended importing Hungarian poultry in the wake of an outbreak of bird flu at a farm in southeastern Hungary, Serbia's farm ministry said in Belgrad on Thursday.

    Hungary's news agency MTI quoted the ministry as saying it imposed the ban in an effort to prevent a regional epidemic and introduced strict checks of the Serbian poultry market.

    Later in the day, Romania also announced a ban on Hungarian poultry imports as of Friday, two days after Croatia put the ban in force.

    Early this week, some 3300 geese suspected of being infected with avian flu in Hungary were culled.

    On Wednesday a Hungarian forensic laboratory confirmed that the birds showing symptoms of a neural disorder did in fact have avian flu.

    The tests said the geese had been infected with the highly pathogenic H5 strain of bird flu. Samples were sent to the European Union laboratory in Weybridge of England on Thursday for further test to determine whether it is the N1 variant.