Swedish authorities says first H5N8 bird flu case found

STOCKHOLM – The first case of H5N8 bird flu has been detected in Sweden amid a recent outbreak of the disease in Europe, the Swedish Board of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

H5N8 was confirmed in a wild bird in the Skane region of southern Sweden and further tests are being carried out on poultry from a farm near Helsingborg which have already been shown to have the H5 strain of the influenza virus, the Board of Agriculture said in a statement.

Bird flu has been found in a number of countries across Europe in recent weeks, including Sweden's Nordic neighbor Denmark.

(Reporting by Stockholm Newsroom)