The government's department of animal husbandry said on its website that the outbreak had occurred on a farm in northeastern Manipur state, where 132 of 144 chickens died earlier this month.

The department did not say whether the chickens had succumbed to the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

"All preventive measures are being taken," Bimal Singh, an official at the state chief minister's office in Imphal, told AFP by telephone.

However, people in Manipur were already starting to worry.

"People have already stopped eating chicken or even eggs," said Mani Singh, a businessman in Imphal, the state capital.

Manipur borders Myanmar, which has reported two outbreaks of the H5N1 strain among its poultry flocks this year.

A team of experts from the animal husbandry department were dispatched to Manipur to work out strategies to tackle the outbreak and prevent its spread, Singh said.

"Chickens are being culled in a five-kilometre radius from the farm where the deaths were reported," a senior veterinary official said in Imphal.

Health officials said there had not been any reports of human illness following the outbreak. Myanmar also has not reported any human cases of bird flu.

"We are keeping a check on the health status of the workers involved in the farm where the deaths were reported," a Manipur health department official said.

India declared itself free of bird flu last August after a February 2006 outbreak which saw authorities kill tens of thousands of birds.

The World Health Organisation has recorded 319 cases of bird flu in humans, of which 192 resulted in deaths, according to the most recent tally dated Wednesday.

Scientists worry the bird flu virus could mutate into a form easily spread among humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

These fears have been especially prevalent in India, a country of more than one billion people where many live in close proximity with poultry.