Avian Flu notifications of H5N1 spread in Eurasia

Several wild swans died of H5N1 in southern Italy, Health Minister Francesco Storace said on Saturday, confirming the arrival in the European Union of the strain of the bird flu virus H5N1 that can be deadly for humans.

Greece said on Saturday it had sent a sample from a wild goose on Skyros island in the Aegean Sea to England for tests for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, a day after sending samples from three swans in northern Greece.

The Greek Agricultural Development and Foods Ministry in an announcement on Saturday regarding bird flu (avian influenza), said that "it was confirmed today by the relevant EU Reference Laboratory of London of the presence of the H5N1 virus in the three samples which were sent the day before yesterday of the dead swans which migrated to our country from our northern and eastern borders.

In Bulgaria the virus was detected in a dead swan that was found near the northwest town of Vidin a week ago. Samples had been sent for testing in Weybridge, UK.

This is the country's first case of the H5N1 virus.

Avian flu spread to a new country with Azerbaijan saying on Friday the lethal H5N1 strain had been found in wild birds floating dead on the Caspian Sea.

China and Indonesia reported two more human deaths from the virus, discovered earlier this week in Nigeria after what a senior United Nations official called a devastating spread from southern Asia over the past seven months.

.... and still little mention of the recent notification of the outbreak in Cyprus.