MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's agriculture ministry said Wednesday that this year's major outbreak of bird flu in southern Russia had been contained, with only 10 out of 67 villages still under quarantine.

"As of today, 10 villages are still affected by bird flu," the ministry said in a statement.

The potentially lethal H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus returned to southern Russia in February, following outbreaks last year. According to the ministry, more than 1.3 million birds died or were slaughtered in Russia in the first quarter of 2006, but a massive vaccination campaign launched at local poultry farms in March has prevented an epidemic.

The ministry said 27.7 million doses of bird flu vaccine had been sent to 12 southern regions and about 14.5 million fowl in the area had been vaccinated since March 10.

More than 200 people have contracted bird flu worldwide, mainly in Southeast Asia, and of those, more than 100 have died. No cases of human bird flu have been reported in Russia.