Czech, German bird flu have same origin-Germany

...likely have a common origin, Germany's top state veterinary laboratory said on Thursday.

The Czech Republic reported finding the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus at two poultry farms and in a dead swan. Germany has found the virus in a number of wild birds in the eastern state of Saxony and southern state of Bavaria.

Germany's Friedrich Loeffler Institute said it compared the viruses found in a wild swan near the Bavarian city of Nuremberg with samples from a Czech turkey farm and found that they had a 99.2 percent match.

"The degree of similarity points to an as yet undetermined common origin for both viruses," the institute said in statement.

The institute said it was not clear if there was a direct connection bewteen the outbreaks in Bavaria and Czech Republic but said they appeared to be the highly pathogenic Asian strain of H5N1 circulating in the Middle East.

Last year, some 13 European Union member states had confirmed cases of bird flu -- Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Hungary.

Bird flu has been spreading across southeast Asia, killing two people in Vietnam this month, the first deaths there since 2005.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed nearly 200 people out of over 300 known cases, according to the World Health Organisation. None of the victims were from Europe.