Germany: H5N1 bird flu confirmed in dead swans

Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer today said that tests have confirmed two swans found dead in northern Germany earlier this week carried the H5N1 bird flu virus.

The tests were carried out by Germany’s Friedrich Loeffler Institute, a federal animal health institute.

Seehofer said the virus was “a sub-strain like that which was first registered in wild birds in China last year”.