Preliminary test results showed 11 dead swans from northwest Hungary were not infected with bird flu, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said on Thursday.

After a visit to the National Veterinary Health Institute, Gyurcsany said the H5 virus has not been found in the bird carcasses, and that intestinal infection was the likely cause of the death.

The swans were picked off ice floes in the Danube near Esztergom on Wednesday and more dead birds were believed to be still stuck under the ice on the river.

Also on Thursday, preliminary lab tests showed that nine turkeys, found dead in south Hungary on Wednesday, had not been infected with bird flu, local media reported.

Further test results will be known within 10-12 days, said Attila Cseplo, director of Kaposvar's Veterinary Institute.

After test results confirmed on Wednesday the presence of H5N1 bird flu virus in three dead swans which were found in south Hungary early this month, Prime Minister Gyurcsany called a crisis management meeting in parliament and announced that a bird flu epidemic had hit Hungary.

Source: Xinhua