"Yes, it is avian influenza. But the viruses have not mutated," Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriantono said after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Anton said the outbreaks in West Java in January and South Sulawesi last month had killed thousands of chickens.

He said the ministry had ordered an isolation for South Sulawesi from inter-island chicken trading.

Indonesia has been hit by sporadic bouts of bird flu since 2003, but unlike in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, no cases have been reported in humans.

JAKARTA, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The Indonesian government has decided to isolate South Sulawesi province from chicken trading as a fresh outbreak of bird flu has killed some 25,000 chickens last week, an official said on Wednesday.

    Deputy chief of the South Sulawesi office of the Agriculture Ministry´s Livestock Department Arifin Daud said the government had also distributed some 200,000 doses of a locally produced vaccine in a bid to stop the disease from spreading.

    "There were indications of bird flu in the dead chickens. However, not all the chickens died because of bird flu," Arifin was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.

    He said bird flu has hit the poultry business in the regencies of Maros, Sidrap, Wajo, Pinrang, Soppeng and Parepare.

    Indonesia has been hit by sporadic bouts of bird flu since 2003with no cases have been reported in humans so far.

Indonesia´s agriculture minister said that trade in chicken from two provinces had been banned to prevent the spread of bird flu which had killed thousands of chickens there. 

"I have ordered the isolation of West Java and South Sulawesi," Anton Aprinato was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

He said laboratory tests confirmed that the disease that had killed 50,000 chickens in South Sulawesi and West Java since the beginning of the year was avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.

The government has enough vaccine to deal with the disease, he said.

Separately, South Sulawesi governor Amin Syam called for the culling of birds infected by bird flu to prevent the virus from spreading.

He said 200,000 doses of vaccine had been distributed to infected areas and one million more would follow.