(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-13 10:50

Governments urged calm on Sunday after H5N1 bird flu made its first appearance in wild birds on European Union soil, while Nigeria was testing what could be the first humans to be infected with the deadly virus in Africa.

News on Saturday that Greece and Italy had found swans with highly pathogenic H5N1 confirmed the arrival in the EU of a virus that has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East and forced the culling of millions of birds.

The virus claimed two more human lives in Indonesia, raising to 18 the number of deaths in the country from bird flu, a Health Ministry official said on Sunday.

Further suspected outbreaks in birds were reported, with EU member Slovenia saying it had sent samples of avian influenza H5 found in a swan to Britain for further tests to see if it was of the highly pathogenic variety.

European officials tried to reassure people, stressing there had been no human cases reported in their region.

"I think we have to keep calm," French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told France Info Radio.

"With the information coming from Italy, Greece and Bulgaria as well as Nigeria, we are still dealing with a bird flu, that's to say it affects birds. There has never been a case of human-to-human transmission anywhere."

In Italy, Health Minister Francesco Storace told a meeting of health experts he would prove there was no need for people to be concerned.

"Tomorrow, I will be visiting all the regions and all the places where the H5N1 was found precisely to show that there is no reason for worry for humans," Storace told reporters.

Experts fear the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain may mutate into a form that can spread between people and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

FRONT PAGES

The arrival of bird flu in Italy dominated the country's front pages of Sunday newspapers, eclipsing even the start of the campaign for an April general election.

The Italian Health Ministry, which urged people not to touch dead birds, said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north.

At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks.

But that is of no comfort to Nigeria, which last week became the first African country to confirm an H5N1 outbreak. Like in most of Sub Saharan Africa, poultry are everywhere there -- in backyards, on city streets, on buses and in crowded markets.

Nigerian health officials were waiting anxiously for test results on two children feared to be the first Africans to be infected with the virus.

"We are suspecting this might be something, but we are trying to get the real case notes," said Health Ministry official Abdulsalam Nasidi.

Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more have been hit with the virus and the problem is compounded by farmers receiving little information on how to handle the disease.

In Brussels, a U.N. humanitarian official said he was worried that bird flu could spread among displaced people in Africa.

"The ultimate nightmare I suppose (would be) this influenza being transmitted from human to human in overcrowded camps in Africa," U.N Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told reporters in Brussels.

Health officials in the countries with confirmed outbreaks stepped up their checks for further cases, with many making spot checks on poultry in areas where the virus had been found.

Veterinary experts said more than 200,000 birds had been culled in northern Iraq to stem the spread of avian flu -- which has killed one teenager there -- and emphasised the virus posed no serious threat to human health.

"Right now this is more of an agricultural issue that's damaging the economy, not yet a serious health hazard," said veterinarian Sam Yingst of the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit in Egypt.