Deadly bird flu spreads, By Christian Oliver
Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:36 PM GMT6

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Two new countries confirmed cases of deadly bird flu in wild swans on Tuesday, with Iran and Austria the latest to detect the virus that has killed 91 people worldwide.

Experts had said it was only a matter of time before H5N1 broke out in Iran, a wintering place for wildfowl that may be carriers. Its neighbours Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkey had already reported outbreaks.

Austria became the third European Union country to find the virus in wild swans, just three days after the bloc's first instances were confirmed by Italy and Greece.

Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety said samples of the dead swans had been sent to the EU's reference laboratory in Britain for confirmation, but its own checks had shown H5N1 was present.

New cases of H5 bird flu were found in Romania, Europe's largest wetlands and a major migratory route for wild birds. Further tests were being carried out in Britain to see if the new samples were H5N1, which Romania has already had cases of.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus has killed at least 91 people in Asia and the Middle East, according to the World Health Organisation.