Switzerland has found its second case of H5 bird flu in a dead swan close to the German border, but said today it would be another week before it is known whether it is the more aggressive H5N1 form of the virus.
The swan was found close to the town of Kreuzlingen at the north-western corner of Lake Constance - also known as Bodensee - where two wild ducks have tested positive on the German side, the Federal Veterinary Office said.
On Sunday, Switzerland confirmed its first case of H5 bird flu in a duck found in the heart of Geneva, near the city's famous jet d'eau fountain. Final test results are still awaited.
The country has been on high alert for bird flu since the virus emerged in neighbours France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
From last month it ordered that all poultry be kept indoors for an indefinite period to lessen the risk from the fast-spreading H5N1 virus that has led to the preventive culling of many millions of birds worldwide.
The European Commission has moved to calm fears about the role of cats in the spreading of the disease, but emphasised that a cat on the island of Ruegen had almost certainly eaten an infected dead bird.
The Commission's aim now is to help minimise the chances of the disease gaining a hold in the commercial poultry population - but no-one holds out much hope of preventing its further spread across Europe via the migratory wild bird population.
The latest developments will be considered today by veterinary experts when the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health meets in Brussels.
Last night, samples from the Swedish birds were sent to the EU laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey, to check whether for the H5N1 strain.
A Commission spokesman said Sweden had already triggered control measures obligatory in any EU country finding bird flu.
They involve a three-kilometre "protection zone" around the outbreak and a "surveillance zone" extending a further seven kilometres.
Within the protection zone poultry must be kept indoors. Its only permitted movement is direct to the slaughterhouse.
In the wider surveillance zone, farms must carry out full-scale disinfection programmes, and the hunting of wild birds is banned.
The H5N1 strain has now been confirmed in Greece, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Slovenia, France and Slovakia.
The latest discovery in Switzerland, and the case of the dead cat in Germany, do not change EU-wide control measures.