Bird flu is continuously spreading to different parts of the country.

Health officials, on Wednesday, have confirmed a fresh H5N1 virus outbreak in the Darjeeling region of eastern India.

The officials ordered the veterinary and health workers to restart culling operations.

Mr. Surendra Gupta, district magistrate, stated, “We have started culling operations at Rangli Ranglikot area of Darjeeling. This time a total of 7,000 poultry will be culled.”

Mr. Gupta also said that the blood samples of dead birds picked up from the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal were infected with the highly pathogenic bird flu virus.

“We got the reports on Wednesday that confirmed that the dead birds had H5N1 virus,” he added.

After confirmation of avian flu on Saturday, around 31,000 birds have been killed at Matigara in Siliguri subdivision, and Pubang in Takdah of Darjeeing sub-division of the same region.

The development came 18 days after bird flu hit Malda district in the state.

West Bengal has been struggling to control the virus since 2007. Avian flu had hit various regions in the state leading to around four million poultry birds being culled.

On Wednesday, officials reached the northeastern state of Manipur, which borders Myanmar, after habitants said around 100 birds died suddenly and a dozen villagers had fallen sick.

Blood samples of the villagers were being tested.

Experts have warned that the H5N1 virus might transform or combine with the highly contagious seasonal influenza virus and spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people across the world.

According to WHO report, H5N1 bird flu has infected over 390 people in 15 countries and killed at least 247 of them since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.