A Indonesian man from an area west of the capital Jakarta died from bird flu on Thursday, an official said, bringing the total number of deaths in from the illness in Indonesia to 93.

Runizar Roesin, head of the bird flu centre in Jakarta, told Reuters the 47-year-old man from Tangerang died on Thursday evening.

The man, who had kept ducks at his home, had tested positive for bird flu and was being treated at a hospital in Jakarta, a Health Ministry official said on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, a 28-year-old woman, also from Tangerang, died of bird flu after being treated at the same hospital.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting bird flu, which is endemic in bird populations in most part of Indonesia.

Indonesia has had the highest number of human deaths from bird flu of any country. Experts fear that the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from person to person, killing millions of people worldwide.