EU lab confirms bird flu in Sweden

EU lab confirms bird flu in Sweden

A European Union laboratory has confirmed that the bird flu virus found in dead birds in Sweden was the deadly H5N1 strain, Swedish authorities said Wednesday.

Two National Board of Agriculture said tests in Weybridge, England, turned out positive.

"The laboratory in Weybridge has now confirmed that it is an H5N1 virus, just as we thought," Berndt Klingeborn, of the National Veterinary Institute, said in a statement.

The result was expected after Swedish authorities announced Feb. 28 that two wild ducks in southeastern Sweden were infected with the H5 subtype of bird flu. Experts said the strain was highly pathogenic, but sent samples to the EU lab for confirmation that it was H5N1, reports the AP.

I.L.