Bird flu spreading in Europe

BERLIN – Migrating swans have spread a lethal strain of avian flu into several European nations in recent days, and experts predicted it was likely only a matter of time before the virus is carried across the continent by migrating birds.

Germany confirmed Wednesday that two dead swans found on the island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. The virus originated in Asia and has jumped from birds to infect at least 165 humans worldwide, killing 91, according to the World Health Organization.

In the past week, dead swans that tested positive for the virus have also been reported in Austria, Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

The virus has previously been detected in Romania, Croatia and Ukraine. And health officials in Poland, Denmark and Hungary announced Wednesday that they were checking dead swans to learn if the infection has spread to their countries as well.

“The virus is here,” said Dr. Lutz Guertler, a microbiology professor at the University of Greifswald in northern Germany. “We still don’t know how this virus is dissipated or what the infection rate will be, but it is here, without question.”

So far, the virus has been confined to wild birds in Europe, although there are fears it could easily infect flocks of chickens or other poultry. That could put humans at higher risk, because most people who have contracted the flu have become infected through close contact with live chickens. Health officials say cooked poultry is safe.

Several European countries, including Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, announced new measures ordering poultry farmers to confine their birds indoors in an attempt to prevent contamination.

Meanwhile, European Union epidemiologists and health officials met in Brussels to discuss ways to confront the outbreak. They said they would spend more than $2.2 million this year to test hundreds of thousands of wild and domestic birds throughout the 25-member union.

Experts worry that if the bird flu virus mutates, humans could become more susceptible and a global epidemic could result. Although no one in Europe has been reported infected by the H5N1 strain – the closest cases have occurred in Turkey, all from contact with dead chickens – there were signs that people were getting jittery.

In Macedonia, President Branko Crvenkovski was confined indoors for three hours by security agents after a dead eagle fell from the sky and landed in his garden, according to media reports Wednesday in Skopje, the capital. Tests later showed the raptor did not die of the flu.