A wild duck found dead in central Italy had been confirmed to be carrying the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising to 11 the total number of cases found in the country, the Italian Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry said the duck was found near Lake Trasimeno in the central Italian region of Umbria on Feb. 13.

Italy reported its first cases of bird flu last week when eight wild swans found in the southern regions of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily tested positive for the virus.

The government has begun to carry out a series of precautionary measures, including the creation of a 3-kilometer high-risk protective zone around each outbreak area, and a surveillance zone of an additional 7 km.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, thus sparking a pandemic.

Bird flu has spread across Europe, with confirmed cases in Hungary, Greece, Italy, Ukraine and Romania, and suspected ones in Austria and Slovenia.

At least 91 of the 169 people known to have been infected with the H5N1 strain have died, mainly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: Xinhua