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Germany Reports New Bird Flu Infections

In the first cases to emerge in a year, officials in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg have reported deadly outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Officials in the southern German city of Nuremberg have reported new outbreaks of avian flu. On Sunday, the city reported having found eight dead swans in addition to a duck and a goose which had fallen victim to the disease. All of the dead waterfowl were confirmed to have been infected with the deadly H5N1 virus in the first cases of the disease to be reported in Germany this year.

A quarantine zone has been established in the city, and poultry farmers have been ordered to place all poultry birds in closed stalls to prevent the disease's spread.

"Over the next few days, the city of Nuremberg will be aided by a federal epidemiological team which will scientifically investigate the causes and background of the infection cases," the city said in a statement, according to Reuters.

According to the European Commission, more than 700 birds in the European Union were found in 2006 to have the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu. The disease spread last year across large parts of Europe, including Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Hungary.

H5N1 is particularly feared because it is highly deadly and can spread to humans. Globally, 200 people have died of bird-flu related complications, and hundreds of millions of birds have been culled to stop the disease from spreading, according to the World Health Organization.

dsl/AP/Reuters