U.S. regulators have approved a new, faster test for diagnosing strains of bird flu in humans suspected of being infected with the virus, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday.

The test designed to detect strains of Asian H5 flu provides preliminary results on suspected samples within four hours, instead of at least two to three days with current testing technology, the agency said.

The H5N1 subtype of H5 flu virus has killed 86 people in Asia and Turkey, and is the strain doctors and scientists fear could cause a worldwide flu pandemic should it begin to be transmitted easily from human to human.

More than half of the people known to have been infected by the H5N1 strain of bird flu have died. However, nearly all of the cases are believed to have been caused by exposure to infected poultry.

The new test, which was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is called the Influenza A/H5 (Asian lineage) Virus Real-time RT-PCR Primer and Probe Set.

“This laboratory test is a major step forward in our ability to more quickly detect cases of H5 avian influenza and provides additional safeguards to protect public health,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.

“The availability of this new test gives us one more tool to keep up with the ever changing nature of influenza viruses,” he said, praising the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved the test.

The new test will be distributed to a network of some 140 labs in all 50 U.S. states designated to enhance early detection and surveillance activities as well as to increase laboratory response capacity, the agency said.