A boy watches officials cull domestic birds at a fish pond in Nasice, Croatia. (AFP)

Beijing, Oct. 26 (Reuters): China reported another outbreak of avian flu in poultry while Croatia confirmed it in wild swans.

Croatia said today tests confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus in swans found dead last week, taking further into Europe the lethal strain that surfaced in South Korea two years ago and most recently spread west to Turkey, Romania and Russia. Germany and Greece were also testing dead birds.

There has been a spate of fresh cases in Asia too, where 62 people have died after close contact with birds, ahead of the northern winter when H5N1 seems to thrive, experts say.

Scientists believe migratory birds escaping south are spreading it and governments around the world are nervously monitoring borders and testing arriving wild birds.

In China’s third case of H5N1 since last week, hundreds of chickens and ducks died in a village in central Hunan province.

Beijing had notified the UN yesterday, according to a notice on the website of the World Organisation for Animal Health.

“Although bird flu cases have been found in some villages in five provinces because of the spread of migratory birds, the whole situation is under control. There are no human cases,” Xinhua news agency quoted health minister Gao Qiang as saying.

China reported another outbreak among farm geese in the eastern province of Anhui yesterday and said it, too, had been brought under control with no reported human infections. Gao said the world’s most populous nation, reporting transparently and had adopted strict quarantine measures. However, China said the outbreak was free of any human infections.

Massive culls of birds in affected areas is one preventative measure. Croatia has now killed at least 27,000 poultry.

The WHO says H5N1 has so far infected 121 people in four southeast Asian nations, killing one in two.

Most catch it by handling sick birds or their droppings.