BEIJING - China's Northwestern Ningxia Hui autonomous region has reported an outbreak of the highly epidemic H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) announced Wednesday.

More than 23,000 chickens at several farms in a village of Touying town in the city of Guyuan in Ningxia showed symptoms of suspected avian flu Friday and the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the epidemic was a H5N1 bird flu case after testing samples collected at those sites, according to the MOA.

The body said in a statement that a total of 95,000 chickens have been culled after the H5N1 bird flu case was confirmed.

"The epidemic is under control now," it said, as a team was dispatched to the quarantined area to guide epidemic prevention.