"A sad case of bird flu"

A poultry farmer in India's bird-flu hit western region was hospitalised on Saturday with flu-like symptoms, the state's health minister said.

"We have admitted him and all precautions have been taken," Ashok Bhatt told reporters. He did not describe symptoms the man was showing.

The man was being tested at a government hospital in Ahmedabad, the state's main city.

Bhatt said the 30-year-old man approached authorities and told them some 600 chicken on his farm had died last week.

More than 50,000 birds have been culled in two districts of south Gujarat, which borders Nawapur district in Maharashtra state from where India's first outbreak of avian influenza in poultry was reported in February.

Maharashtra has struggled since then with a third outbreak hitting 14 new villages this week in the state's Jalgaon district, near the site of the two earlier outbreaks.

The virus has also struck a region close to Jalgaon in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

India has culled more than 500,000 birds and monitored hundreds of people living in close proximity to poultry.