Avian influenza has been confirmed in Italy, Germany and Austria.

The Italian authorities informed the European Commission on February 13 that it had confirmed outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 in dead wild swans tested on the eastern coast of Sicily, in Taranto, Puglia, and in Calabria. The confirmatory tests were carried out by the Italian national laboratory for avian influenza in Padua (an accredited EU laboratory and also the reference laboratory of the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the OIE), following preliminary positive tests undertaken by laboratories in Palermo, Portici and Foggia.

Dead swans found in Germany and Austria have now also now been confirmed as having had the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first such cases in either country.