Kolkata (PTI): Chicken deaths have been reported from Jalpaiguri district, which was so far free from bird-flu, even as culling operations continued in the other affected regions of the state on Friday.

Three hundred chicks were reported dead at Baganbari village in Falakata area of Jalpaiguri, Falakata panchayat samity president Lily Chakraborty said.

An FIR was lodged and samples from the poultry sent for testing the presence of H5N1 virus.

In Darjeeling where chicken deaths were reported from Takdah village yesterday, District Magistrate Rajesh Pandey said the report on the samples was still awaited and no culling was being carried out.

Darjeeling municipality announced a ban on the sale of chicken and poultry products and asked people to desist from consuming them.

In worst-affected Birbhum the work to destroy chicken was taken up at Rajapukur, a new area to be affected by the disease as well as in Suri municipal area, official sources said at Suri.

The culling figure in the district was the highest at over 9.6 lakh while that in the state was yesterday revised to 28 lakh.