Health officials in India say they have found the country's first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, following the death of chickens from the virus on poultry farms in the western town of Navapur.
Indian officials say the slaughter of as many as 500,000 birds in a 1.5-mile radius around the farms will begin immediately and trade in poultry in a 10-km radius around the outbreak will also be banned.
According to the Maharashtra state minister for animal husbandry, Anees Ahmed, at least 30,000 chickens have died in Navapur, a major poultry-farming region of Maharashtra state over the past two weeks, and the the H5N1 strain of the virus has been confirmed as the cause.
Initially officials suspected the birds may have died from Newcastle Disease, another deadly bird illness, but further tests revealed that H5N1 bird flu was responsible.
Federal government officials in India say eight people are being tested for bird flu in the same area, while another four including three children are being closely monitored.
Indian Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss says the country has adequate supplies of anti-bird flu drugs and the situation is under control.
India is one of the world's top producers of eggs in the world, and livestock and poultry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country.
France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, has confirmed that a wild duck found dead last week near Lyon in a region famous for the quality of its chickens, had the H5N1 strain which was 99 percent identical to the original Asian virus.
Veterinarians are now checking birds within a three-kilometer (two-mile) security zone around the spot, in line with European Union emergency measures.
President Jacques Chirac has promised the government will be vigilant and ready to respond to a possible outbreak.
Dominique Bussereau the farm minister has reassured the French population that it is safe to eat chicken, but has cautioned people to avoid contact with wild birds and to refrain from touching dead ones.
Bussereau says as the disease has only been found in a wild bird, France was not planning at this stage to slaughter poultry, but says as many as 900,000 birds would be vaccinated against bird flu.
The death of a a 23-year-old market worker from the virus in Indonesia takes the death toll there to 19.
According to Hariadi Wibisono, an Indonesian Health Ministry official,the man who died on Feb. 10 at a hospital in Jakarta had been in frequent contact with poultry.
The only country with more human deaths than Indonesia is Vietnam, with 42.
The number of known human cases of the disease worldwide has now reached 171, with 93 deaths.
Experts estimate that two hundred million birds across Asia, parts of the Middle East, Europe and Africa have died of the virus or have been culled because of it.
To date the virus remains a bird disease and people are only affected when they have direct or indirect contact with sick poultry.