Kuwait announced on Saturday a new case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in a chicken, raising the number to 54 since the outbreak began on February 25.

Health ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Shatti said in a statement that the new case was detected in Wafra, on the southern border with Saudi Arabia, where a majority of the cases had been detected.

But he said tests of blood samples for some 300 people who were in contact with the infected birds have so far been negative.

A team of experts from the World Organisation for Animal Health arrived in Kuwait on March 5 to help the authorities and assess the situation.

The Gulf emirate has slapped a total ban on the import and export of birds, closed down bird markets and shut the only zoo, where one case of an infected falcon was detected.

Authorities have also closed down hundreds of shops selling live chickens as a precautionary measure although no case has been reported in large poultry farms.

Kuwait has stocked some 10 million capsules of Tamiflu, sufficient to treat about 40 percent of the population of three million.

Authorities have also culled thousands birds of various types.

In November 2005, Kuwait announced the first case of a bird infected with the deadly H5N1 strain -- a flamingo at a seaside villa.

The H5N1 strain, the most aggressive form, has killed more than 160 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation, and seen millions of birds destroyed.

H5N1 is an avian influenza subtype with pandemic potential, since it might ultimately adapt into a strain that is contagious among humans.