India announced its first cases of bird flu yesterday and said eight people were being checked for the disease after tests on poultry in a western state showed they were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain. About 50,000 birds have died in the area in the last few days and samples sent to a government laboratory confirmed bird flu in the western Maharashtra state, local animal husbandry minister Anees Ahmed yesterday.

"Yes, it is confirmed. The disease is H5N1. It has come to Maharashtra," Ahmed said.

"We are treating it as an emergency."

Ahmed said 200 veterinary doctors had been sent to the affected district of Nandurbar.

Officials also banned trade in poultry in a 10km radius around the outbreak.

Federal Health Secretary P K Hota said that eight people were being tested for the H5N1 virus while four more are being kept under observation.

"We are testing eight humans for bird flu virus in the affected area in Maharashtra. Their blood samples have been sent to testing. Four, including three children, are being kept under observation," Hota said.

An emergency meeting of the cabinet secretariat was called in New Delhi, a TV report said.

India is the fifth largest producer of eggs in the world.

Livestock and poultry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country.

An animal husbandry official said there were up to 20 poultry farms within 20km of the outbreak.

"We have sent in the report (on the birds) to the government," in New Delhi, H.K. Pradhan, director of the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal, said.

The laboratory is one of just 10 high security disease facilities in the world and the only one in Asia.

With migratory birds from affected countries such as China passing through the subcontinent in the winter, Indian officials have become increasingly concerned about the possibility of infection.

They recently stepped up testing of poultry farms nationwide.

Indian officials have said that in the eventuality of human-to-human transmission, bird flu would be a massive challenge for the country of more than one billion people with its underfunded health infrastructure.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Indian poultry worker sprays disinfectant on eggs at a poultry farm in Navapur town, about 300 km (186 miles) north of Mumbai February 13, 2006. (REUTERS)