Siliguri, May 9: The Darjeeling administration today confirmed an outbreak of bird flu north of Siliguri, a little more than a month after the H5N1 virus was detected in neighbouring Jalpaiguri.

Poinikumari in Kurseong subdivision is 60km from Sonpukur and Saheber Kamath villages of Jalpaiguri, where birds were culled earlier.

At Poinikumari, 283 chickens have died since April 27. “The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal has confirmed that the samples have tested positive for bird flu,” said Darjeeling district magistrate Rajesh Pandey.

“We have formed 25 teams, which will cull 18,000 poultry birds,” said Pandey.

The areas where birds will be culled are about 20km from Siliguri town. A control-room has been set up in Pintail, 4km from Siliguri.

Besides Jalpaiguri, the avian influenza virus had been detected in three other north Bengal districts earlier — South Dinajpur, Cooch Behar and Malda.