The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in chickens at a central Polish poultry farm, authorities said Monday. The new outbreak is the country's newest case of the avian flu after farm nearby was hit earlier this month.

"Just as in the previous cases all the chickens will be culled," Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman Malgorzata Ksiazyk said

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the possibility that the H5N1 virus could be transmitted from person to person, based on findings that the father of a 24-year-old man who died of bird flu in eastern Jiangsu Province, China early this week was also infected with the deadly virus.

The condition of the 52-year-old father, who was identified only with his surname, Lu, is now being closely monitored after he showed symptoms of H5N1 on Monday and was confirmed on Wednesday to have the virus

Polish Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki said Monday the bird flu virus detected last week on a turkey farm near Plock is under control. The H5N1 virus was traced to two villages, Uniejewo and Mysliborzyce, near central Poland.

A leading meat company said it received a delivery of 5,500 birds under consignment. Eight percent were dead or in bad condition, while three were found to have the bird flu virus. But at least 661 pounds (300 kilograms) of infected meat, possibly contaminated with the virus, may already be in retail outlets

A new outbreak of the bird flu has been discovered in a farm in Saudi Arabia's Al Kharj region, south of Riyadh. To contain the threat, Saudi Arabia's Agriculture Ministry ordered the culling of 216,000 birds suspected to have the flu. There have been over a dozen outbreaks since November, and the country has been forced to kill an estimated 4 million birds.

To avert the spread of the disease, the United Arab Emirates' Environment Agency has ordered strict monitoring of fowl movements

Saudi Arabia's agriculture ministry on Wednesday said two new cases of avian influenza were detected at separate egg production facilities in the capital Riyadh.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted the ministry as saying that the H5N1 outbreaks occurred at the Thadiq and Kharj governorates