Laboratory tests have confirmed a dead Oriental magpie robin, found in northern Hong Kong's Tin Shui Wai on Dec. 17, was H5N1-positive, the city government said in a statement on Friday.

The city's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said it would continue to inspect poultry farms to ensure that proper precautions against the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu have been implemented.

It came three days after a chicken carcass, found at a poultry market in Hong Kong, was tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus. As a result, nearly 20,000 chickens were culled at the poultry market on Wednesday.

York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for Food and Health, had raised the city's response level for bird flu to "serious" from " alert" after the discovery of the virus in the carcass. In addition, local farms were stopped from sending chickens to the market for 21 days.

Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a contagious disease of animal origin caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. It can be fatal to humans.

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