March 3, 2006

Serbia reports first suspected bird flu case

Serbia's agriculture ministry said Thursday (Mar 2) that initial tests conducted on a wild swan found in western Serbia revealed that it had died of the H5 strain of bird flu.

Samples from the bird--found near the border with Croatia--will be sent to the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge, England, to determine whether the bird had the lethal H5N1 strain, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

The agriculture ministry said it was the first suspected bird flu case in Serbia. Several cases of the deadly bird flu strain have already been recorded in poultry and birds in neighbouring Romania, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Hungary.