Health officials at the infected farm in Gadab, near Karachi. (AP)

Karachi, Feb. 1 (Reuters): Pakistani authorities have detected an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a poultry farm on the outskirts of its biggest city, Karachi, but officials said today there was no likelihood of any human infection.

Several outbreaks of the H5N1 strain have been found in birds in Pakistan over the past year and the first human case was confirmed late last year. In December, the World Health Organisation said it had established a single case of human infection of bird flu in a sick family in Pakistan but there was no apparent risk of it spreading further. The man died.

“Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the virus in a poultry farm in Karachi, and we are now monitoring the workers on the farm as well as another one adjacent to it,” said an official of the Sindh provincial government. “But there are no signs of any human infection,” the official said.

Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui, general secretary of the Karachi Wholesale Poultry Association, said about 5,500 chickens at the farm had died because of the virus while 500 that survived had been culled.

In West Bengal, 26 people were put in isolation. Out of the 26, 18 have tested negative. The flu has spread to 13 of West Bengal’s 19 districts.

However, in spite of the official assurances, the sale of chicken, the favourite meal of 160 million Pakistanis, is likely to fall. Infected chicken samples were sent to laboratories today for necessary testing and found positive for the bird flu strain.

“I dropped plans to cook chicken korma today, which is served every Friday night on my dinner table after hearing the news about the bird flu,” Mehnaz Farrukh, a house-wife in Karachi told The Telegraph. Though Mehnaz was aware of the precautions, that she must wear gloves while cooking chicken at 70 degrees Celsius, she was reluctant to buy chicken. “I also strictly refused my son, who wanted a half-fried egg at breakfast,” she said, adding: “Why should we put our lives at risk.”