CROATIA: Croatia and Romania confirmed more cases of avian flu yesterday while Candian government officials said several wild birds had turned up in Quebec and Ontario with the H5 strain of the disease.
Tests on two swans found in Croatia showed they had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed more than 60 people in southeast Asia, and which was first discovered in Croatia last month.
Romania announced that a goose and a swan had died of bird flu near the Danube delta, where thousands of domestic poultry have already been culled to quell the disease, which is thought to have arrived there with birds migrating south from Russia.
Romanian scientists said tests would confirm soon whether the two birds had died of the H5N1 strain, which epidemiologists fear will mutate into a virus that spreads easily between humans, and cause a flu pandemic that could be fatal to millions.
Reuters adds: A senior government source told the Canadian Press yesterday that several wild birds in Quebec and Ontario have turned up carrying an H5 strain of avian flu.
The source said officials don't know yet if the birds have the deadly H5N1 strain for the avian flu or whether it is the exact strain responsible for lingering poultry outbreaks in south-east Asia.
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