Czechs confirm first case of H5N1 bird flu strain
Tests on a dead swan have confirmed the Czech Republic’s first case of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday.
The swan was found near the southern town of Hluboka Nad Vltavou, on the Vltava river.
Neighbours Austria, Slovakia, Poland and Germany have already confirmed cases of the virus.
"A definitive confirmation of the highly pathogenic type ... can be expected from the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge in Great Britain in the middle of next week,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said a second dead swan suspected of carrying the H5N1 virus was discovered in the same region. The State Veterinary Office in Prague is conducting tests on that animal to see if it also has the virus.
Authorities have set up three- and 10-km (1-6 mile) zones around Hluboka where special veterinary measures in line with EU rules have been instituted.
The H5N1 strain, which has spread from Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Europe, remains essentially an animal disease but can infect people who come into contact with sick poultry.
It has killed over 100 people in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia, according to World health Organisation (WHO) figures.
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