MANILA (2ND UPDATE) - The Philippines on Friday reported bird flu cases in Nueva Ecija province, as it moved to contain the virus in neighboring Pampanga.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said 2 new cases of avian flu were confirmed by the Bureau of Animal Industry in the farming towns of Jaen and San Isidro.

More than 300,000 fowls in Nueva Ecija are affected with the virus, including 200,000 quails, 57,000 native chickens, 28,000 layer or egg-laying chickens, and 22,000 ducks, Piñol said.

A 7-kilometer quarantine zone was also declared in each of the two towns, as authorities prepared to slaughter the affected birds, he said.

The presence of the virus was confirmed after laboratory tests were conducted on quails and layer chickens in the 2 towns.

"Unlike in the case of San Luis, Pampanga where a similar cases was only reported three months after it as first suspected, the Nueva Ecija cases were immediately reported," Piñol said in a Facebook post.

Some 600,000 birds were set to be culled in the farming town of San Luis, Pampanga, where the government also imposed strict quarantines.

The Department of Health will deploy monitoring teams to the 2 towns and distribute the anti-viral medicine oseltamivir (Tamiflu) to those tasked to kill the suspect birds, assistant secretary Eric Tayag said.

Tayag allayed the public's fears, saying the spread of the virus remained an animal health problem.

The government also banned the shipment of poultry products from Luzon to other parts of the country.

-with a report from Kori Quintos, ABS-CBN News