Kolkata, Jan 18: West Bengal Government today described the outbreak of bird flu in the State as "alarming".

The State Government has targeted culling of 400,000 poultry in the affected areas to check the disease.

"For this, we have decided to increase the strength of the culling teams," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters after his meeting with the National Disaster Mission delegation in Kolkata.

He said all poultry birds within 5-10 km of the affected areas would be culled within seven days.

"The biggest problem which we are facing at the present is the bird flu in Birbhum District. Here the number of affected birds is the maximum and also a government farm has been badly affected. Therefore we have to speed up the culling process. So far we have killed 40,000 birds and need to kill more so that this virus does not spread," said Bhattacharjee.

At least 60 teams of animal husbandry workers were working in the affected areas to cull the birds. (ANI)