Ukrainian troops moved from house to house on Sunday in five villages where a virulent strain of bird flu has been detected, removing domestic birds for a mass cull in pits being excavated by diggers.

Emergency Ministry troops, covered from head to toe in plastic and wearing masks, rounded up squawking chickens, ducks and geese, stuffed them in plastic bags and tossed them in the back of dump trucks in the Crimea peninsula.

Agriculture Minister Oleksander Baranivsky on Saturday identified the virus as H5, and said it was highly lethal to birds and may be dangerous to humans.

Official data showed more than 2,500 birds had died since Friday and samples were sent to laboratories in Britain and Italy for further analysis to see if the virus is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Mechanical diggers prepared pits to accommodate the remains of the birds, due to be incinerated with napalm -- stored from the Soviet era and brought to the region in drums aboard trucks.