BERLIN, June 24 (Reuters) - The southern German city of Nuremberg said on Sunday that the bird flu virus had been discovered in the bodies of eight dead birds found in the state of Bavaria, Germany"e;s first confirmed cases this year.

The corpses of two more birds are being analysed to see if they also contained the H5N1 avian flu virus, a city spokeswoman said.

"The city of Nuremberg and the Veterinary Office for the region of Fuerth have established a quarantine zone in the affected areas and will continue observation activity around Nuremberg," the city said in a statement.

The bodies have been sent to a national laboratory to determine if the virus is the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 virus, it added.

Among the birds found in two lakes near Nuremberg were swans, a duck and a goose, the statement said.

Last year, some 13 European Union member states had confirmed cases of bird flu -- Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Hungary.

Czech veterinarians started culling several thousand turkeys at a farm last week after tests confirmed the country"e;s first outbreak of a deadly form of bird flu in poultry.

Bird flu has been spreading across southeast Asia, killing two people in Vietnam this month, the first deaths there since 2005.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed nearly 200 people out of over 300 known cases, according to the World Health Organisation. None of the victims were from Europe.

Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been slaughtered.