The bird flue-like disease is killing chickens in Indonesia's Central Java, but a local officialsaid on Tuesday the symptoms shown were not as same as that of thebird flu.

Indonesia suffered from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at the end of last year, and has lost around 8.9 million chickens in over a dozen of its 32 provinces across the country.

But the latest discovery of the disease remains unknown and unseen before."We're trying to identify the disease, but I don't think it is bird flu because the symptoms are different," Suwandi Azis, head of poultry for the Sleman regency was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post internet news.

"The chicken's rectum turns red and it dies," said Suwandi.

The disease has hit at least five villages in Sleman regency since last week, and the infected chickens have been quickly slaughtered.

However, up to now, there have been no reports of bird flu infecting people in Indonesia.

Source: Xinhua