Two outbreaks of bird flu in Afghanistan were caused by the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 avian virus, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Friday.

The outbreaks occurred among 202 birds in Nangarhar and Kunar, 73 of which died, according to an outbreak report that the OIE received from the Afghan ministry of agriculture.

The highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 has been confirmed by tests in an advanced laboratory, the outbreak report said.

On Wednesday, the UN´s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said the infected birds were turkeys and that the H5 virus was the suspected culprit.

The Afghan authorities have carried out screening and culling in their response to the outbreaks, the report issued by the Paris-based OIE said.

Afghanistan has also banned poultry imports from Pakistan because of its outbreaks of H5N1, officials in Kabul have said.

There were confirmed cases of the H5N1 virus in birds in Afghanistan last year, but not in humans.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed 167 people worldwide since it re-emerged in 2003, most of them in Asia, according to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) toll.

Scientists fear a global pandemic if the virus mutates and becomes easily transmissible between humans.