Romania has found suspected bird flu in hens in another village 100 km (60 miles) east of Bucharest, where an outbreak was detected last week, officials said on Monday. The H5 type of the virus was confirmed last week in two villages in Ialomita county, indicating the avian disease could be spreading towards the capital. Since October, the Balkan country has found avian flu in 21 villages in and around the Danube delta where the deadly strain of the virus was first discovered 300 km from Bucharest. Nine cases have been confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. But the disease has not appeared close to large cities and officials have said it was unlikely to break out there. "Preliminary tests taken from several hens in the village of Traian show suspicion for the H5 type, but the virus hasn't been isolated yet," Nicolae Stefan, head of the Animal Health and Diagnosis Institute, told Reuters. He said the village will be quarantined and all domestic fowl would be destroyed as a precaution.
