DHAKA, March 29 (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank is helping Bangladesh fight an outbreak of bird flu, the bank said on Thursday, following Dhaka"e;s call for international assistance to improve its ability to test the virus.

About 55,000 chickens have been culled since the outbreak of avian flu was confirmed in 11 farms near the capital Dhaka last week. No humans have ben confirmed infected.

"ADB is assisting Bangladesh to pool resources and respond more effectively to bird flu outbreaks," Hua Du, the bank"e;s Bangladesh country director, said in a statement.

The assistance involves preventing or controlling infection among birds, strengthening early detection and reporting and rapidly managing cases of human influenza caused by the H5N1 virus.

Bangladesh told representatives of donor nations at a meeting on Wednesday that it needed to upgrade its bird flu testing capabilities.

The main laboratory at the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute lacked equipment to conduct a full range of testing for bird flu and samples have to be sent to Bangkok for confirmation.