(CNN) -- The dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu that has killed more than 60 people in Asia, has now been found in Croatia, the European Union has announced.

 

 

 

"The Commission has been informed by the European Union reference laboratory ... that the virus isolated in wild birds in Croatia is indeed the H5N1 virus," EU Commission spokesman Philip Tod said.

Croatian authorities said they slaughtered all domestic poultry in four villages near a Nasice pond where two of 13 swans found dead tested positive for bird flu. The pond is next to the Zdenci park and all the infected swans were believed to have been from the same flock.

The virus had earlier been detected in birds in Romania, Russia and Turkey, raising fears it could spread to the rest of Europe. (Watch Europe's bird flu strategy -- 2:17)

On Tuesday, the EU said it would ban the importation of exotic birds and impose stricter rules on the private ownership of parrots and other pet birds.

On Wednesday, Britain's Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett revealed that a second parrot had probably died of the lethal strain of the disease while in quarantine in the UK. (Full story)

In Germany, officials said that preliminary tests on wild geese found dead there came back positive for bird flu. And even though the fowl died of poisoning -- not influenza -- further tests would be carried to see whether they carried H5N1.

Slovenia, Hungary and France were also testing birds found dead for signs of bird flu..

China has announced its third outbreak of bird flu in a week and Indonesia confirmed its fourth human death from the virus.

The latest Chinese outbreak killed 545 chickens and ducks in central China and prompted authorities to destroy nearly 2,500 other birds, the government reported.

China earlier told the United Nations that 2,100 geese in the eastern province of Anhui were infected, news agencies reported Tuesday.

More than 500 of the birds died and 45,000 were culled.

China last week reported another outbreak had emerged in the country's northern region of Inner Mongolia. Some 2,600 chickens and ducks were found dead at a breeding facility.

There have been no reports of human cases of bird flu in China.

Also Tuesday, Indonesia said testing had confirmed that a man who died last month was positive for bird flu, raising the number of deaths from the virus in the country to four.

The latest victim, a 23-year-old from Bogor, West Java, was hospitalized in late September and died two days later, Hariadi Wibisono, a Ministry of Health official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. A Hong Kong lab confirmed the test results.

The lethal H5N1 strain that has decimated the bird industry in Asia and has reached Europe first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997, before re-emerging in 2003 in South Korea and spreading to countries including Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, China, Indonesia and Cambodia.

While bird flu has devastated the bird population, there have only been 121 cases where the flu has jumped to humans since 2003. Of those, more than 60 have died, all after close contact with sick birds.

However, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could be transmitted between humans, triggering a global pandemic.

Scientists believe migratory birds escaping the harsh northern winter are helping spread the virus, and governments around the world are nervously monitoring their borders and testing wild birds landing on their shores.

"Un librito impreso para los niños cubanos que fue escrito por el gran profesor Francisco Dominguez Roldan sobre el Dr. Carlos J Finlay. Publicada por el Ministerio de Salubridad y Asistencia Social de Cuba el 3 de Diciembre de 1945."