TOKYO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- A local government in Japan confirmed Monday that the third case of bird flu outbreak within the month involved the highly virulent H5 strain of avian influenza, Kyodo News said.

    Dozens of chickens died of H5 infection in a poultry farm in the city of Takahashi, Okayama prefecture during the past days, the prefectural government said on Monday morning.

    Earlier this month, two bird flu cases involving the deadly H5N1 strain were reported in southern Japan's Miyazaki prefecture, where thousands of birds died in two chicken farms, and the rest tens of thousands were culled later.

    Bird flu infections hit dozens of farms in central Japan's Ibaraki prefecture in 2005 and 2006, resulting in the killing of at least 5.8 million poultry.

    It is feared that the bird-to-bird disease of avian flu currently spread around the globe could mutate into a virus transmissible between humans and led to a pandemic.