An emergency meeting of all the Block Development Officers (BDO) of Rampurhat Sub-division has also been called on Tuesday to discuss the issue, official sources said.

The Central government is yet to declare the death of the chickens as an "outbreak" and is waiting for a report from a laboratory in Bhopal where samples have been referred.

Unofficial reports said at least 20,000 chickens have died so far.

The health department of the state government has also formed 12 teams, each comprising a doctor and other health workers, to start rapid culling of the birds in the case an outbreak is confirmed, District Magistrate, Tapan Shome, said.

The assistant director of the Animal Husbandry department at the Centre, A B Negi, visited Rampurhat sub-division of the district on Tuesday.

An isolation ward had been opened in the Rampurhat district hospital to treat any possible cases of human bird flu.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Minister for Animal Resources Development Anisur Rehman said the state government is waiting for the report from the Centre on whether the chicken deaths in Birbhum district were caused by bird flu or not.