More than 80,000 chickens will be culled in Hong Kong after bird flu was detected in a poultry farm, Hong Kong health officials said Tuesday.

Up to 60 dead chickens were discovered in that farm and tests showed that they did die from the H5 virus, said Dr. York Chow, Hong Kong's food and health secretary. He added that further tests were being done to see if they had the deadly H5N1 strain. However, the source of the outbreak is not yet known.

The farm had about 60,000 birds. To prevent the spread of the disease they will all be killed. Furthermore, all chickens within a 3 km radius of the farm will be destroyed along with birds at a wholesale market, Dr. Chow said. He added that Hong Kong would also suspend poultry imports for 21 days.

This is the third time Hong Kong confronts with a bird flu outbreak. In June, the city officials ordered the slaughter of all chickens in the city’s markets and retail outlets after tests showed birds infected with the flu in four markets.

Back in 1997, Hong Kong confronted with another major bird flu outbreak, when the virus jumped to humans and killed six people. Nearly 1.5 million birds were slaughtered at the time.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 382 human cases worldwide since 2003, 241 of them fatal. Indonesia is the hardest hit regions of all, with 108 of the deaths and is seen by health experts as a potential hotspot for a pandemic.