French officials announced Thursday that three swans have been found dead and carrying the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in eastern France.

The Agriculture Ministry said Thursday that the three swans were found in a pond in Assenoncourt in the Moselle region. Testing showed they carried the H5N1 bird flu virus.

The ministry said a control zone has been set up, about half a mile around the Assenoncourt pond, including fowl farms in and around Assenoncourt. Officials are also on the watch for more dead wild birds in the region.

The ministry said in a statement that the alert level has now been raised from “moderate” to “high” and that preventive measures have been intensified. Domestic fowl is to be protected from wild birds.

Pigeon racing competitions have been banned as a measure of precaution, as well as other activities involving birds.

France had a bird flu scare in February 2006, when domestic fowl tested positive for the disease in the eastern Ain region. The situation was rapidly under control and thousands of turkeys were slaughtered.

On Thursday, Germany raised its risk-preventive measures for bird flu after the lethal H5N1 virus has now been detected in two birds among 100 found dead on an artificial lake between the states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt.

The Friedrich Loeffler federal animal diseases institute raised the alert level from "moderate" to "high". According to the institute, the H5N1 strain that killed the birds is almost identical to that found earlier this year in the Czech Republic.

As a measure of prevention, a restricted zone had been set up around the area where the infected diver was found.  Last week, wild swans, geese and ducks were found with H5N1 in Leipzig in the eastern state of Saxony and in the southern city of Nuremberg in Bavaria.