Veterinary experts fear that they have found the first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in European domestic poultry as opposed to wild, migratory birds.

A turkey farm in south-east France and a duck farm on a German island in the Baltic have both been sealed off, as vets urgently investigate.

If laboratory tests confirm the presence of H5N1, the news - while long expected - will send a shiver through the European poultry industry.

A vet raised the alarm this morning at the farm in France, not far from where the country's first case of H5N1 bird flu was detected last week in a wild duck, after a high number of unexplained deaths among the 11,000 turkeys on the premises.

Samples have been sent for analysis, with results expected to be known tomorrow, the French farming ministry said. The surviving turkeys on the farm are being slaughtered this afternoon.

France is Europe's largest poultry producer, and yesterday won consent from European Union veterinary officials to carry out a limited programme of vaccination on free-range fowl who live outdoors.

Meanwhile, initial tests on a domestic duck which died on the northern German island of Ruegen have proved negative for H5N1, but final test results will not be known until later today.

More than 100 cases of H5N1 have been found among wild birds on Ruegen, as well as three cases on the neighbouring mainland. The German Government is so concerned at the outbreaks that it has sent 300 soldiers to help with the clean-up and disinfection effort.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, ordered all German poultry farmers to take their birds indoors on Tuesday, to prevent them catching bird flu from wild birds who swoop down to share their outdoor feeding and water troughs.

There was better news in India, where senior health officials at the scene of the country's first bird flu outbreak said that 12 people under observation in hospital after developing a mild fever had not shown signs of developing the disease.

In addition, all but one of the first batch of 95 samples collected from residents of the Navapur area had tested negative for avian influenza. In total, 202 samples from 174 people had been sent for testing, he said.

Since 2003 the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people, mostly in Asia, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Almost all the people who contracted the virus either worked or lived on chicken farms.

In Nigeria, the first African nation to report an outbreak of bird flu among domestic birds, samples from four possible human victims of H5N1 are still waiting to be sent to Britain for testing. The samples were due to have left nearly two weeks ago, but officials claim that difficulty obtaining permits and arranging refridgerated transport has delayed their despatch.

One of the patients, a woman, died of acute respiratory failure a week ago. The remaining three, including two children, are said to be recovering.

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