LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Six animals were tested positive of avian influenza and five of them died for the disease at a zoo in the U.S. state of Arizona, the Maricopa County Public Health Department said.

The department said Wednesday that test results had detected the presence of H5N1 avian flu at the Litchfield Park zoo, or Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium, a 215-acre zoo and aquarium in city of Litchfield Park, near Phoenix.

Wildlife World Zoo President Kristy Hayden said the five dead animals for the outbreak included a mountain lion, a cheetah, a kookaburra, a swamphen, and an Andean goose. Meanwhile, a white tiger was infected but responded to treatment and is currently recovering.

She said precautions were taken by staff to identify the virus as soon as possible, noting the zoo had temporarily halted guest activities involving direct contact with animals and any animals exposed to avian flu had been quarantined.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the current public health risk is low, despite the bird flu had been spread in poultry, U.S. dairy cows and infected human being recently.

The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) on Dec. 6 reported the state's first human avian flu patients, both of whom were exposed to infected poultry at a commercial farm.

As of Thursday, 58 people had tested positive for bird flu in the United States this year, including two who had no known exposure to infected animals, according to CDC. Enditem

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