Bird flu ruled out in chicken deaths in eastern India

The deaths of more than 2,500 chickens at a poultry farm in eastern India last week were not caused by bird flu, the area's top administrator said Tuesday after laboratory tests proved negative.

Samples taken from some of the birds who died on the farm in the Darjeeling region of West Bengal state were sent to a federal testing laboratory in the central Indian city of Bhopal, the only one in the country authorized to detect the presence of the avian disease.

"The result of the tests have come, and all are negative," health official Rajesh Pandey told The Associated Press. "This is good news for all of us."

Pandey said the farm was allowed to reopen. He did not say, however, what caused the deaths.

West Bengal Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rehman has said preliminary tests indicated the chickens may have died from Exotic Newcastle, a fatal respiratory virus in birds.

The virus affects all species of birds, but is not known to attack humans. Many birds die without showing any signs of the disease.

India confirmed an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the west last year, but declared itself bird-flu free after slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens. No human cases were reported.

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 172 people, largely in Asia, since late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.