ISLAMABAD, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- A strain of bird flu has been found in chickens near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and a city in the country's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), officials and reports said.

    The H5N1 virus, which also afflicted the country one year ago, has been found in the chicken flock in a house in the city of Rawalpindi, some 30 kilometers south from Islamabad, and also in aflock of peacocks in Mansehra, a main city in the NWFP, according to Pakistan's Animal Husbandry Commissioner Rafiq-ul-Hasan Chughtai.

    The private News Network International quoted Chughtai as saying that there was no report of the spread of the virus in any other poultry farm anywhere in the country.

    TV channels reported that all the chickens in the affected flock of some 40 birds at the house in Rawalpindi had died or been culled.

    The poultry industry in Pakistan suffered huge losses when bird flu hit chicken farms near Islamabad and several other parts of the country in March last year.