Authorities say they've detected suspected cases of bird flu at three farms in western Colombia, but insist the avian outbreak poses no threat to human health.

Colombian authorities said Monday they had identified a "low pathogenicity" strain of avian influenza in "just a few" and immediately quarantined all the affected flocks.

The strain was not, Agriculture Secretary Andres Felipe Arias stressed when he told reporters the news, the H5N1 strain experts fear could mutate into a deadly human virus.

"Thanks to the vigilant program we are developing in the country to detect bird flu, we were able to detect a strain of the flu of very low pathogenicity," the agriculture secretary said without specifying exactly how many birds were infected.

The discovery was made at a farm in Fresno, approximately 200 kilometres south of the capital Bogota.

"It's a form of the virus that is not like the one we dread that has been found in Asia. There is no problem in terms of human health."

In light of the H5N1 avian flu virus that has so far mainly been found in 10 Southeast Asian countries, Arias sought to assure Colombians they have no need to worry.

"The important thing is that it's under control, the farm is quarantined and there's not going to be any health problem or with the consumption of our poultry products," he said Monday.

In Europe, officials are also confronting the spread of bird flu.

In western Turkey, where officials identified an avian flu after 1,800 fowl died last week, scientists have apparently narrowed the disease down to an H5 type virus. That's the same family of bird flu as the deadly Asian virus, though they haven't confirmed it is the exact same strain.

At least 40,000 birds are expected to be slaughtered in Romania as well, as officials there struggle to contain cases of bird flu confirmed on Saturday.

After the Russian government revealed in August that the H5N1 strain which first appeared in western Siberia in July had spread to the Ural region of Chelyabinsk, officials across Europe have been wary of the disease spreading with wild birds' annual migration.

According to the World Health Organization, 112 people worldwide have become sick from the H5N1 avian bug since it was first identified in Asian poultry populations in 2003. At least 60 have died.