Indian state culls 300000 poultry in bird-flu outbreak

Around 300,000 chickens and ducks have been slaughtered in the past two weeks in the northeast Indian state of Assam in the latest outbreak of bird flu virus, local media reported on Friday.

"It is a matter of worry with the virus now spreading to new areas and hence a maximum health alert has been sounded. Teams of doctors and paramedics are taking precautionary measures so that humans are not affected," the Times of India cited a local Health Ministry official as saying.