Austria found two cases of deadly H5N1 bird flu virus near Vienna today, raising the total number of cases there to seven and prompting a nationwide order to confine poultry indoors, the health ministry said.
Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat told a news conference that a dead swan found in the Vienna suburb of Donaustadt and a dead duck found in nearby Lower Austria province had tested positive for suspected H5N1 infection.
She said a poultry protection zone already established in southern Austria, where four swans and a duck tested positive for H5N1 earlier this week, had been extended throughout the Alpine republic as a result of today's discoveries.
Laboratory tests on two other dead ducks found in the southern province of Styria were due on Monday. The findings must be confirmed at the European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, England.
"We are well equipped (to handle bird flu) and have everything under control. We can clearly signal to all Austrians that no danger to people exists," Ms Rauch-Kallat told ORF public radio earlier today.
"It's absolutely necessary to keep a close eye on this problem, take it very seriously, and coordinate measures against it across the EU and beyond. But there is no reason for panic."