"The provincial live stock ministry ordered 21,268 sheep which arrived from Bahrain to be culled after laboratory tests showed bacterial presence of salmonella and actinomyces in them," Roshan Shaikh told AFP.

The animals arrived some 10 days from the Gulf state, which had in turn imported them from Australia and refused to accept them after finding they were infected, Haleem Adil Shaikh, an advisor to provincial chief minister said.

"A importer brought these sheep to Pakistan but we also ordered them to be culled after receiving report based on laboratory tests," he added.

Five years ago, Pakistan culled thousands of chickens after they were found infected with H5N1 (birdflu) virus.