Sweden confirms H5 bird flu, not H5N1 -EU

BRUSSELS, Mar 17 (Reuters) Sweden has confirmed the H5 strain of bird flu in a duck on a game farm in the east of the country, the second possible case on a commercial farm in the European Union, the EU executive said today.

All birds on the farm, around 500 mallards and 150 pheasants, would be killed and destroyed in the next few hours. After this, more veterinary tests would be carried out, the European Commission said in a statement.

Earlier, the Commission said Sweden had notified a confirmation that the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu had been found in the duck.

It then corrected this statement, saying the deadly strain was ''strongly suspected but not yet confirmed''.

Samples would now be sent to the EU's main bird flu laboratory in Britain to confirm that the duck was infected with the Asian strain of the H5N1 virus, the Commission said.

The H5N1 virus was detected in a mallard near the Baltic port city of Oskarshamn on Sweden's eastern coast, it said. The farm lies within a surveillance zone that was set up after bird flu was found in wild birds at the end of February.

The virus had only been found so far in a single mallard and the other birds on the farm appeared in good health, it said.

Reuters SHR DB2317