KRASNODAR, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - About 250,000 birds have been culled at a poultry farm that was the site of an outbreak of bird flu in early September in the Krasnodar Territory, south Russia, local officials said on Friday.

"All poultry on the farm have been slaughtered. The state of emergency in the region following the outbreak of bird flu has been lifted," the spokesman said.

No other bird flu cases have been registered in the region, he added.

The lethal H5N1 virus was identified at the farm after some 500 chickens died on September 4. About 22,000 birds were slaughtered the day after the infection was confirmed.

In 2005, 1.3 million birds were culled in Russia, and in 2006 the figure stood at 1 million. This year, however, the figure has dropped to around 260,000.

Since late 2003, when the virus first hit Asia, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 191 people, according to World Health Organization statistics.

No human deaths from bird flu have been recorded in Russia.