Jul 5, 2007
Reuters

BERLIN, July 5 (Reuters) - Germany is raising its assessment of the risk of bird flu after officials in France and Germany discovered more birds that had died of the lethal H5N1 virus, the country's top state veterinary laboratory said on Thursday.

"We will raise the threat level," said a spokeswoman for the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.

She cited news on Wednesday that more wild birds had tested positive for the lethal strain of H5N1 bird flu in Germany -- this time in the eastern state of Thuringia.

France confirmed its first cases of the disease in over a year earlier on Thursday, she noted.

The assessment level affects the measures the government and local authorities take to prevent bird flu, such as keeping birds to confined areas.

Last year, 13 EU countries had confirmed cases of bird flu, which has been spreading across southeast Asia. It killed two people in Vietnam this month.

Globally, H5N1 has killed nearly 200 people out of over 300 known cases, according to the World Health Organisation.

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