Croatian authorities on Saturday took measures to curb the spread of bird flu following the confirmation of the first bird flu case in this Balkan country, according to reports reaching Belgrade from Zagreb.

Police sealed off the area within a three-kilometer radius of a fish pond where the country's first bird flu case was confirmed, the national news agency Hina reported.

All poultry within three-kilometer radius will be euthanized on Sunday and owners will be compensated, said the reports, adding that stringent measures have been applied within a 20-kilometer radius of the pond.

A spokesman for the Croatian Agriculture Ministry said that fishing was also banned at that fish pond owing to a possibility that bird flu virus may be conveyed by water.

On Friday, Croatian scientists detected the H5 bird flu virus in wild swans found dead at a fish pond between Orahovica and Nasice, in east Croatia, and sent samples to Britain to determine whether the virus was the lethal H5N1 strain.

The results are expected on Monday or Tuesday and the European Commission said it was preparing a ban on imports of poultry from Croatia.

Five more dead swans were found at another fish pond near Nasice on Saturday and were being analyzed, said the reports.

Croatia lies on one of the main routes migratory birds use to move west and south for the winter. The birds may have been in contact with the most recent flu virus to the east.

Besides Croatia, cases of bird flu have been found in Romania, Turkey, Greece and Britain.

Source: Xinhua