BEIJING - A POULTRY farm in southwestern Tibet has been quarantined after an outbreak of the deadly H5NI virus killed 1,000 birds there, the Agriculture Ministry reported.

The bird flu outbreak detected Jan 25 in Gongga county was confirmed on Tuesday and 13,080 birds have been slaughtered as a preventive measure, the ministry said.

No cases of human infection have been reported so far, it said.

Ministry experts have been dispatched to aid local government containment efforts, the ministry said. Such quarantines usually extend for 21 days from the culling of the last bird, while pens and cages are disinfected and workers monitored for symptoms.

Bird flu was last reported among poultry in Tibet in March of 2007, while outbreaks have also been found among migratory wild birds in the Himalayan region.

China, which raises more poultry than any other country, has vowed to aggressively fight the H5N1 virus. Last week it lifted a quarantine in the Xinjiang region, which neighbors Tibet, after 35,000 birds were slaughtered following a December outbreak, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Health officials in China and Vietnam have urged stricter controls to keep the virus from spreading during the upcoming Lunar New Year festivities.