France confirmed on Saturday it had found the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in a wild duck, the first case of the virus in Europe's biggest poultry producer, Reuters reported. The farm ministry said tests showed a duck found dead in eastern France on Monday had the virus, which is transmissible to humans and has spread from Asia to Europe and Africa. "This virus is to 99 percent identical with the virus of Asian origin," the ministry said in a statement. The tested bird was one of several wild ducks found dead near Lyon in a region famous for the quality of its chickens. Officials said they had installed a security zone of three kilometres (two miles) around the spot where the bird was found. Veterinarians are checking birds within the zone, in accordance with emergency measures planned by the European Union. A few hours before the test results were confirmed, President Jacques Chirac said the government would be vigilant and ready to act on a possible outbreak. "It is a situation which we have to take with calm, but which also has to be taken very seriously," Chirac told a news conference in Bangkok during a trip to Thailand. The highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus has infected 171 people and killed 93 of them.
