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SOFIA - The first case of the H5 bird flu virus in Bulgaria has been detected in a dying swan, veterinary services chief Jeko Baichev said on state radio Friday.
He said it was not yet known if it was the H5N1 strain which has caused the death of some 80 people, mainly in Asia but also in Bulgaria's neighbour Turkey, pending analysis by a specialist laboratory in Britain.
The swan was found by a team monitoring the Danube river and died on its way to a laboratory in Sofia, Baichev said.
"After analyses lasting four days we concluded that it was the H5 virus," he said.
Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil said that for the moment it could not be confirmed that bird flu had infected Bulgaria.
Cases of the H5N1 virus have been detected in two of Bulgaria's neighbours, Romania and Turkey, where four children have died.
- AFP /ls
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