(Adds details) BRUSSELS, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The European Commission on Saturday confirmed that the H5N1 strain of bird flu was found on a poultry farm in eastern England. The Commission was informed by British authorities of the suspected outbreak of avian influenza in Suffolk on Friday, the EU executive said in a statement. The outbreak occurred on a holding of 159,000 turkeys and was detected following the death of around 2,500 birds. Further tests to characterise the virus are under way to ascertain whether it is the Asian strain. The British government was enforcing EU-agreed controls to contain the outbreak, which means setting up a protection zone with a radius of 3 km (2 miles) and a surveillance zone of 10 km around the infected holding, the Commission said. Strict movement controls are in place, poultry must be kept indoors, there is a prohibition on gatherings of poultry and other birds and on-farm biosecurity measures will be strengthened. It was the second confirmed case of H5N1 in the 27-country European Union this year, following one in Hungary.
