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LONDON, England -- Another region in European Russia, Tambov, located 400 km (250 miles) south east of Moscow, has confirmed an outbreak of deadly bird flu virus, a senior regional animal health official said.

"Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain (of bird flu)... in some dead fowl tissue samples," the official told Reuters Monday.

He said the disease killed 12 hens at a private dacha in Morshansk district last week, after which local veterinary authorities destroyed 53 ducks and hens remaining in the locality, and imposed a quarantine on it.

Since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea, H5N1 has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and spread as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.

Moscow confirmed last Wednesday an outbreak of H5N1 in the Tula region, some 200 km (125 miles) south of the Russian capital.

Russia has been fighting bird flu since mid-July and has killed more than 600,000 domestic fowl.

Meanwhile test results were expected Monday on a parrot which died in quarantine in the UK which is suspected of having have the deadly H5N1 strain.

Britain's chief vet said that quarantine measures in the UK were to be reviewed as a result of the case.

The parrot, from Suriname in South America, was almost certainly infected with the deadly H5N1 avian flu by a bird from Taiwan, Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Debby Reynolds said.

The two separate bird consignments were kept in the same quarantine compound in Essex, sharing the same "airspace".

Reynolds said it was likely that the parrot, from Suriname, in South America, had contracted the disease in the UK.

Asked if she considered placing the birds together to be a mistake, she told the UK's Press Association: "The process of putting consignments together is something that we obviously need to review."

Because the bird was in quarantine, the UK's disease-free status is still in place, Reynolds said.

Suriname, which sits on South America's northeast coast, has not reported the lethal H5N1 strain, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.

The bird was one of 148 parrots and "soft bills" that arrived in the country on September 16 for display and for collectors. Another parrot also died, but she did not know the cause.

Dispelling concerns, Ron Cutler, a bird authority at the University of East London, said the finding shows the "British quarantine system is working effectively."

Meanwhile, the European Union says it is preparing to ban poultry imports from Croatia after the country detected bird flu in some dead swans. The wild swans tested positive for the H5 virus, but it was not yet known if it was the deadly H5N1 strain. (Full story)

The swans landed in Croatia earlier this week, but it is not known where they migrated from.

The bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia over the past two years. The latest person to have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain was a seven-year-old boy in Thailand -- whose father died from the virus two days ago.

Hospital officials say the boy, who apparently helped his father slaughter and cook a chicken, is expected to recover.

Most of the human deaths have been linked to contact with sick birds. But experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that can be transmitted between humans, triggering a global pandemic.

As the scare over bird flu intensifies, Europe and Asia are ordering clampdowns on the movements of birds and people.

Hong Kong's border with China, one of Asia's busiest, might be sealed if the deadly H5N1 bird flu starts spreading from human to human, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper.

The H5N1 strain first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997, then re-emerged in 2003 in South Korea, before spreading to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Russia and Europe.

Hong Kong has been a hotbed of virus alerts in recent years, including the outbreak of the SARS disease in 2003, which killed almost 300 people there. (Full story)

The H5N1 bird flu strain also infected 18 people in Hong Kong in 1997, six of whom died.

Consequently, Hong Kong's entire poultry population, estimated at around 1.5 million birds, was destroyed within three days. This is thought to have averted a pandemic.

In Europe, the EU has placed restrictions on bird markets and shows while urging nations to vaccinate zoo birds as part of increased measures to head off the spread of the disease.

New bird flu outbreak in Russia

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