On January 15, India's agriculture officials reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain in two districts of West Bengal. The outbreak occurred at private farms in the Birbhum District, some 250 km (160 miles) from the state's capital, Calcutta, and at a state poultry farm in a nearby district. On January 20, bird flu was discovered in three more districts in West Bengal.
However, India's health ministry rejected rumors that humans in the affected areas could have contracted the virus.
India's agriculture officials announced a number of measures to contain the outbreak, including plans to increase the number of poultry to be slaughtered from 800,000 to about 2 million.
In 2006, India reported a bird flu outbreak in the state of Manipur, in the northeast of the country. Hundreds of thousands of chickens were slaughtered at the time.
Although no cases of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza have been reported, scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that could pass easily from person to person, causing a global pandemic.
More than 200 people have died worldwide from bird flu since the first fatality was registered in 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
