State and federal officials have renewed public outreach efforts to encourage people to report dead birds for possible testing for the West Nile virus and bird flu.

The West Nile virus and bird flu are not known to be present in Hawai'i, but a report earlier this month of more than 20 dead chickens on Kaua'i has prompted the state Department of Health and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remind the public to help watch for the diseases and report dead birds to officials, the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species said this month.

Neither disease — which could show up in wild or pet birds or poultry — is suspected as the cause of death in the Kaua'i chickens, the group said.

The agencies ask that anyone who finds a dead bird that is not decomposed or "flattened" — flat birds run over by vehicles are not testable — call 211 to report it for testing.

The toll-free 211 number is staffed by Aloha United Way operators, who will notify trained officials to pick up birds appropriate for testing and deliver them to the state Department of Health laboratory for disease testing.

People may also report dead birds on a new Web site, www.gotdeadbird.org, a project of the state Department of Health and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The West Nile virus is spread by the bite of a mosquito that feeds on an infected bird. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus has probably been in the eastern United States since the early summer of 1999.

To date, Alaska and Hawai'i are the two states that do not have the West Nile virus, the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species said.

More than 24,400 people have been sickened by West Nile, and there have been more than 970 deaths caused by the disease, according to the CDC.

At least 177 people died from West Nile virus in 2006 out of 4,269 reported cases, according to the CDC. The number of deaths was the greatest since 2003, when 264 people died out of nearly 10,000 cases. The deadliest year for West Nile was 2002, when 284 people died.

A recent study published in the journal Nature also determined that the dramatic drop in the number of birds across parts of North America is likely because of the West Nile virus.

Bird flu, a virus highly contagious among birds, has been found in Asia, parts of Europe, Africa and the Near East.

It's rare for humans to catch bird flu, but there have been more than 300 confirmed human cases of bird-flu virus H5N1 and nearly 200 deaths since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

So far, H5N1 doesn't pass from human to human except in extremely rare circumstance, but officials have said that if it evolves to do so, it could become a global health crisis.