The strain of bird flu that has struck poultry in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is different from the one that has killed dozens of people in Southeast Asia, a UN expert said Tuesday after visiting the DPRK.

The DPRK had killed some 219,000 birds on three farms within a five-kilometer radius of the capital of Pyongyang, said Hans Wagner, a veterinarian for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

FAO tests confirmed those done by the DPRK that the birds were infected with the H7 strain, not the H5 strain that jumped from animals to humans in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, Wagner said. He arrived Tuesday in Beijing from the DPRK.

There are nine different varieties of the H5 avian flu virus. One strain, called H5N1, jumped to humans last year in Asia, killing 48 people. Governments of 10 countries slaughtered millions of fowl in order to stop its spread.

(Shenzhen Daily via agencies April 6, 2005)