India ? India’s agriculture officials confirmed on Tuesday that an outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the east of the country was the deadly H5N1 strain.

“Now we can say it is definitely bird flu,” Pradip Kumar, a ministry official, said adding that 250,000 birds would be culled.

Kumar said bird flu cases had been reported in two administrative districts in the state of West Bengal. He said the outbreak was reported at private farms in the Birbhum District, some 160 miles from the state’s capital, Calcutta, and at a state poultry farm in a nearby district.

The affected area has since been cordoned off and is under surveillance, the official said.