Bird Flu Hits Sweden; Afghans Suspect It
`Sweden recorded its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain on Wednesday, saying European laboratory tests confirm two wild birds found dead in the southeast were infected with the virus. Afghan authorities, meanwhile, said preliminary test results from a U.N. lab left them “99 percent certain” that the country’s first bird flu outbreak was the deadly H5N1 strain.
Danish authorities said they too had found a wild bird infected with an aggressive strain of bird flu, but it was not immediately whether it was the deadly H5N1 strain. If confirmed as H5N1, it would be the first case of the virus in Denmark.
Also Wednesday, Myanmar announced it had culled 5,000 poultry to prevent the spread of bird flu, as authorities in western India prepared to slaughter tens of thousands of chickens.’
