The Guangzhou Provincial Agriculture Department has confirmed that samples from live chickens in a poultry farm in Zhuhai City tested positive for H7N9 bird flu virus.

The announcement came after experts gathered samples from chickens inside the Zhuhai Jinfeng Poultry, a poultry farm located in Domen District, and discovered that the samples were positive for the dreaded bird flu virus.

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The testing was conducted by Guangzhou's provincial center for animal disease control, the Provincial Agriculture Department said. A confirmatory test was conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture's national laboratory. It again tested positive for the virus.

With the discovery, authorities immediately disposed of at least 80,000 live chickens that were believed infected with the virus. The agriculture department also provided up to five tons of disinfectant to the company.

The China Poultry Industry Association said H7N9 has heavily affected the industry since the outbreak in March 2013. The association said the industry has already lost more than US$6.7 billion as poultry markets were shut down last year in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangzhou, and other major provinces.

Li Xirong, deputy director of the association said prices for poultry have slumped and sales sharply declined when the outbreak was announced. Live poultry markets in Guangzhou and Shanghai were again ordered closed for two weeks last month when the bird flu epidemic resurfaced.

Statistics showed that Zhejiang province reported the most number of H7N9 cases among all regions in China last month. It also reported the country's first human-to-human transmission in November 2013.