A British laboratory has confirmed that two more water birds have died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Switzerland, bring to three the total for the country, the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office said today.

The newer cases were in a coot and a scaup duck found earlier this month in northern Switzerland.

The first case to be confirmed was a merganser found along the lakefront in Geneva last month.

Swiss authorities assume that eight other birds that tested positively for H5 bird flu also have the deadly H5N1 strain, but results from the confirmation tests in England are still pending.

Swiss authorities have so far tested 468 dead birds for the virus.

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