¡¡PRAGUE, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic has confirmed it's eighth case of bird flu after tests showed that a swan found dead recently was infected with the H5 virus, the State VeterinaryAuthority said Friday.

    Jan Duben, spokesman for the state veterinary department, said the dead swan had been found in the small town of Velka Cerna, about 5 km from the country's border with Austria.

    The veterinary authority had taken emergency measures in the area, setting up a 3-km no-go area and a 10-km epidemic preventionzone around the site where the dead bird had been found, the spokesman said.

    All the confirmed cases of bird flu in the country have been found in the region of South Bohemia.

    The first swan to be hit by the disease, found dead on March 27,has been confirmed by the European Union Laboratory at Weybridge in Britain of having the "highly pathogenic H5N1" strain of bird flu virus.

    Samples of the other dead swans were sent to the British lab for further tests.

    In addition, the Czech state laboratory was carrying out tests on dead swans, found recently in Prague and other areas, which were suspected of being infected with the disease, local media reported. Enditem