The Indian government scrambled to cope with its first confirmed avian flu infections at the weekend, culling 900,000 chickens in the west of the country where the infected samples were found and preparing to dispatch anti-bird flu drugs to affected areas.

On Saturday, Indian officials confirmed the H5N1 avian flu virus had been found in samples taken from dead chickens in northern Maharashtra following the deaths of some 50,000 chickens in the area in the past few days.