Romania detected a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry on Saturday, just a month after the strain was said to have been eradicated there, authorities said.

The discovery of the infected birds in Transylvania prompted authorities to cull hundreds of domestic fowl.

The Black Sea state has culled nearly half a million fowl and gradually stopped around 60 bird flu outbreaks across its territory since the first avian flu case was detected in the Danube delta last October.

"Lab tests detected the (highly pathogenic) H5N1 strain in dead poultry from several locations in Transylvania," Romania′s chief veterinarian Ion Agafitei told Reuters. He said around 2,200 birds were culled and quarantine imposed as a precaution. The outbreaks occurred in the villages of Hurez and Codlea and in the outskirts of the small town of Fagaras in the county of Brasov, some 170 km (106 miles) north of Bucharest, Agafitei said.