Hungary reported a new case of bird flu in a wild swan near Budapest, saying it suspected but had not yet confirmed it was the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. The bird, found 24 kilometres (15 miles) north of the capital, in Horany, would be Hungary's fourth case of H5N1, after the lethal virus was confirmed in three wild swans in the south of the country last week.
"We know based on lab tests at the Animal Health Institute that the wild swan found in Horany died of bird flu," the prime minister's office said in a statement.
"Hungarian experts believe that in all probability the H5N1 virus that is potentially dangerous to man caused the death of the animal," the statement said, adding that samples would be sent to a specialist laboratory in Weybridge, England for confirmation.
Hungarian authorities have set up a three-kilometre (two-mile) protection zone and a 10-kilometre surveillance area around Horany, in line with European Union directives.
So far, the H5N1 virus in Hungary has been detected only in wild birds and has not infected domestic animal stocks.
Since the current outbreak began in 2003, 173 human cases of H5N1 bird flu -- 93 of them fatal -- have been confirmed by the World Health Organisation.
