Bird flu returns to EU with confirmed case in Hungary

(BRUSSELS) - Hungarian authorities on Wednesday reported an outbreak of bird flu in the south-east of the country, the first instance of the virus in the EU since August, the European Commission said.

"The European Commission has been informed by the Hungarian authorities today of an outbreak of avian influenza in Csongrad County, south-east Hungary," the European Union's executive arm said in a statement.

The virus was detected after an abnormally high mortality rate was reported in a flock of over 3,000 geese and tests carried out by Hungary's national laboratory confirmed the virus to be the highly pathogenic H5 strain.

Samples are to be sent to an EU laboratory in Weybridge, near London to determine if it is the H5N1 virus which is potentially fatal to humans.

Acting on suspicion of the disease, the Hungarian authorities have already culled the infected flock, in order to prevent the spread of the virus, the EU's executive arm said.

They were also said to be enforcing EU rules requiring a three-kilometre (two-mile) protection zone and 10 kilometre surveillance zone to be set up around the infected farm.

It is the first incidence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in the EU since August 2006, when one case occurred in a zoo in Dresden, eastern Germany.

The disease situation will be reviewed at an EU expert meeting on Friday.

Earlier Wednesday Croatia announced it had banned imports of poultry from neighbouring Hungary amid bird flu fears.

Between late 2005 and the summer of 2006 13 EU nations -- plus Romania which has since become a member -- uncovered cases of the H5N1 strain.

Earlier this month the European Union decided to lift its ban on live birds entering the bloc but laid down strict conditions for their import.

EU food chain and veterinary experts decided to replace the ban with strict new guidelines that go beyond the rules that were in place before the embargo was imposed in October 2005 amid an earlier bird flu scare.

Experts fear that the H5N1 virus will mutate and become easily transmissible from human to human, causing a pandemic like the Spanish flu in 1918 which killed millions of people.