France says H5N1 bird flu virus confirmed in swans

PARIS, July 5 (Reuters) Tests have confirmed that three swans found dead in eastern France were killed by the H5N1 bird flu virus, the French agriculture ministry said today, France's first cases of the disease in over a year.

''Michel Barnier, minister of agriculture and fishing, is putting in place the risk prevention measures corresponding to the shift from the 'moderate' level to the 'high' level,'' the ministry said in a statement.

The ''high'' level means that in mainland France birds and poultry will have to be either locked up or protected by nets to avoid all contact with wild birds, a ministry official said. The gathering of birds and pigeon contests will be forbidden.

Germany said today it was raising its assessment of the risk of bird flu following the French announcement and after officials this week discovered more birds that had died of the H5N1 virus, this time in the eastern state of Thuringia.

In 98 ''humid zones'' in France, or around 15 per cent of the country, there will be special veterinary checks at poultry farms.

French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said on French television that the country was not threatened by a flu pandemic at this stage but that the government would be remain on alert.

''We have to be extremely vigilant because the large flu epidemic that appeared after the first world war, also known as Spanish flu, was of avian origin,'' she said on LCI.

The 1918-1919 flu killed at least 30 million people worldwide.

France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, increased its precautions against bird flu in June, saying the risk of the disease hitting the country had gone up after it was found in a number of wild birds in Germany and in the Czech Republic.

A French poultry breeders group said in a statement today that the sanitary practices they put in place gave them sufficient tools to thwart the spread of the disease.

Last year, 13 European Union member states had confirmed cases of bird flu -- Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Hungary.

In France, the virus was found in more than 60 wild birds and at a farm with 11,000 turkeys. It had not been detected in the country since April 2006.

More than 30 countries have reported outbreaks in the past year, in most cases involving wild birds such as swans.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed nearly 200 people out of over 300 known cases, according to the World Health Organisation. None of the victims were from Europe.

REUTERS AGL BD1751