Amid reports of slow pace of culling operations in Birbhum and South Dinajpur districts, the Chief Minister said the state government had set a target of culling four lakh poultry in the affected areas. The Rampurhat sub-division of Birbhum district was the worst affected, followed by Balurghat in West Dinajpur district, he said.

Bhattacharjee said it had been decided that poultry in the 5-10 km radius of the affected areas would be culled and the process would be completed within seven days.

Dead birds -- crows and owls -- were found in Kolkata's southern and eastern parts today causing fresh fears as a civic team moved around the metropolis to collect bird carcasses.

"We will tell the state health department to assess whether the deaths are unusual," a Kolkata civic department official said. Shopkeepers had downed the shutters yesterday following reports of death of caged birds.

"We will have to kill four lakh birds in the affected districts. We have decided to increase the strength of the culling teams," Bhattacharjee said here after a meeting with central Livestock Commissioner S K Banerjee, state Animal Resources Development minister Anisur Rehman and Health Minister S K Mishra.

Isolation wards have been kept ready in all sub-divisional hospitals for treating the affected. Medical college hospitals of Burdwan, Bankura and East Midnapore districts have also been put on alert, Bhattacharjee said.

The Chief Minister said the state finance department has allotted Rs 3 crore as compensation to the poultry owners, who would, however, not be allowed to do business in the next three months.

As the state government rushed over 60 teams of animal husbandry workers to the affected areas to cull the birds, medical teams too fanned out to find out whether there was any infection in the humans.

Confirming that bird flu has spread to Murshidabad district, Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahman said the administration was taking adequate precautions.

Lack of awareness among bird owners and villagers had been hampering culling operations in most of the affected areas and a campaign has been launched to convince villagers that the government will pay them compensation.