Five new outbreaks of bird flu virus were reported in Europe's Germany, Switzerland and Romania Sunday.

In Germany, three wild birds in the northeastern part have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, authorities said yesterday, bringing to 117 the total number of infected birds found in the region.

Germany's first cases of the virus, announced on February 14, were on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, which still accounts for most of the confirmed cases.

Switzerland has confirmed its first avian flu case in one bird, though further tests are needed to determine if it is the deadly H5N1 strain, Swiss Federal Veterinary Office spokeswoman Cathy Maret said yesterday.

Romania detected new suspected cases of bird flu in domestic fowl in a village in the south-east, but more tests were needed to see if it was the deadly H5N1 strain, authorities said yesterday. Avian flu has been detected in 34 villages across the country and in a small Black Sea resort since the virus was first found in the Danube Delta in October. Romania has not reported any cases in humans.

Meanwhile, French and European officials are hoping to avert popular panic and economic losses after the first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu to strike an EU farm was confirmed in eastern France.

Eight EU countries have so far confirmed cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, but until Saturday all these cases had been found in wild birds. So far the virus has not jumped from birds to humans.

The new French outbreak involves turkeys in a farm in the east of the country.

France had previously confirmed two cases of H5N1 bird flu, but both were in wild ducks found in the same area.

French President Jacques Chirac publicly played down the development, munching on a piece of chicken that came from the area where the infected turkeys were found as he inaugurated an annual agricultural show in Paris.

"There is no interest in provoking a pyschosis, a panic, it's scandalous," he said, although there was no sign of poultry at the farm show.

(China Daily February 27, 2006)