INDIANAPOLIS — A bird flu virus that’s a different strain than the one that ravaged turkey and chicken farms in the Midwest last summer has been found at a southern Indiana turkey farm, federal officials said Friday, cautioning that a quick response could stem any larger outbreak.

The H7N8 flu strain was confirmed at a commercial turkey farm in Dubois County, about 70 miles west of Louisville, Kentucky, after samples from birds were taken when the farm saw a surge in turkey deaths, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The strain is highly contagious for birds; the USDA said no human infections with the viral strain have been detected.

State and federal officials said they confirmed the virus Thursday night and began euthanizing about 60,000 turkeys, saying they hope to have them all removed by Friday night.

“Hopefully as we respond quickly to this virus we can get it contained and hopefully not see an extensive outbreak like we did last year,” said T.J. Myers, a veterinary services administrator with the USDA. “We’ll see how the coming days unfold.”

It’s a different strain than the H5N2 virus that cost turkey and chicken producers, mostly in the Upper Midwest, about 48 million birds.

Indiana wildlife experts said that southern migration happened later than normal this year because of the mild weather, but it’s unclear “how much of a factor that has been in this,” according to Indiana Board of Animal Health spokeswoman Denise Derrer. The H7N8 virus has not yet been found in wild birds, suggesting that the virus could have developed in wild birds that spent the winter in southern Indiana, USDA spokeswoman Andrea McNally said, adding that it’s too early to speculate about the origin.

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