Bird flu broke out in Washington state for the third time, sending agriculture officials in a scramble to keep local poultry away from migratory birds that carry the deadly virus.

Around 120 locally raised poultry - ducks, geese and chickens - have been culled in Seattle's Clallam County over the weekend, after investigators determined infections of the fatal H5N2 strain of bird flu.

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U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Joelle Hayden told bird owners in the state to keep their birds away from wild birds and report illnesses or unusual bird deaths. She did say the commercial poultry is free of the virus and ruled out immediate public health concern.

Most types of bird flu viruses do not infect humans but some strains can be risky or fatal.

In December last year, the Agriculture Department detected two distinct bird flu virus strains in Whatcom County in Washington, near the border with Canada, with infections found in domesticated Gyrfalcons and pintail ducks that ingested food from migratory birds.

In early January, the Washington State Agriculture Department placed an eight-month quarantine of eggs and poultry in parts of the counties of Franklin and Benton, after the H5N2 type of the virus was detected in two flocks of poultry.

Health experts said the virus is extremely infectious among birds and can spread quickly through a flock, killing birds as fast as two days. The H5N2 bird flu type has killed thousands of poultry on two farms in Canada's British Columbia.

Last week, Beijing ordered a ban on all poultry and egg imports from the U.S. following the confirmation of bird flu cases in the country's Pacific Northwest. Federal officials said all birds shipped to China after January 8 was to be culled or returned.