A strain of the bird flu virus has been found in two dead swans in Sweden; it is the same strain that has been discovered in a number of European countries within the past couple of months, sources said.
However, the Swedish Board of Agriculture declined to raise the current bird flu alert level, which is now at its lowest in the country. A board official said that "this is not really unexpected since we have had several cases in Europe during the autumn and the winter."
Earlier, cases of the H5N8 bird flu strain were reported in Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
