An Egyptian boy has contracted the bird flu virus, the state-run news agency quoted the Health Ministry saying on Sunday, in the second such case in the last week and the 55th case since the virus reached Egypt in 2006.

The eighteen-month-old boy -- Abu al-Wafa Suleiman Abu Omar, from the province of Minia in central Egypt -- first showed symptoms on Friday after coming into contact with dead birds and was admitted to hospital on Saturday.

He was administered the antiviral drug Tamiflu and is now in a stable condition, the health ministry said.

On Wednesday, the ministry reported a two-year-old boy in the Suez province was in hospital after contracting the virus.

Egypt is one of the only countries affected by bird flu that does not offer compensation for farmers when poultry is destroyed, which many experts say is the best way to ensure rapid detection of new outbreaks.

Some 5 million Egyptian households depend on poultry as a main source of food and income.

Since 2003, the virus has infected 404 people in 15 countries and killed 254 of them. It has killed or forced the destruction of more than 300 million birds. Egypt has had the most cases outside of Asia.