PARIS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Officials are carrying out tests to see what caused the deaths of some 4,000 chickens on a farm in northeastern France, but initial indications did not point to bird flu, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said in a statement that the birds died suddenly on Saturday while another 3,500 chickens at the same site appeared completely health.

"The clinical aspects (of the case) as well as the results of the autopsies do not especially indicate a diagnostic of bird flu," the statement said, adding that full results were not expected until Tuesday.

The owner of the farm told LCI television that it was "99 percent certain it is not bird flu".

France has detected just one outbreak of bird flu in its poultry industry over the past year.

The environment ministry said last month it had classified the risk of its domestic poultry flock catching bird flu from migratory wildfowl as negligible.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease but it has infected more than 250 people worldwide since late 2003, killing more than 150, according to the World Health Organization.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans and spark an influenza pandemic, killing millions of people.

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