Key dates in the spread of bird flu

2003

December 15 - South Korea confirms a highly contagious type of bird flu at a chicken farm near Seoul and begins a mass cull of poultry when the virus spreads rapidly across the country.

December 31 - Taiwan reports its first case and later destroys thousands of chickens with a milder form of avian flu.

2004

January 8 - Vietnam says bird flu found on poultry farms.

January 13 - World Health Organisation confirms the deaths of three people in Vietnam are linked to bird flu.

January 25 - Indonesia discovers an outbreak among chickens.

January 26 - Thailand confirms the death of a six-year-old boy, its first human death from bird flu.

February 12 - The World Health Organisation says tests confirm there is no evidence bird flu is passing from person to person.

March 16 - China Decemberlares it has stamped out the disease.

May 26 - Thailand reports a fresh case of bird flu in several dead chickens on a university research farm.

August 19 - Malaysia says a strain of bird flu has been found in two chickens that died near the Thai border, its first cases.

September 27 - Thailand says it has found a case where one human probably infected another with bird flu. It said this was an isolated incident that posed little risk to the population.

December 15 - Taiwan says it has discovered two strains of avian flu in migratory birds in the north of the island, the milder H5N2 strain and the H5N6 strain.

2005

April 5 - The UN says the H7 strain of bird flu, previously undetected in Asia, has been found in North Korea.

July 8 - The Philippines says it has found ducks with bird flu but later says the strain was not highly pathogenic.

July 20 - Indonesia confirms its first deaths from bird flu.

July 26 - Japan says a new outbreak of bird flu has been discovered on a chicken farm in east Japan. All outbreaks in the Ibaraki prefecture were confirmed as the weak H5N2 strain.

August 10 - The bird flu virus has been found in Tibet, the world animal health body OIE says.

August 15 - Russia reports an outbreak of bird flu in the Urals region of Chelyabinsk, the sixth region to be affected.

August 23 - An outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain in seven villages in Kazakhstan is confirmed as dangerous to humans.

September 1 - Vietnam reports one new human death from bird flu, taking its total to 44. 65 people have died in Asia in total, including 12 in Thailand, five in Indonesia, four in Cambodia.

October 8 - Turkey reports its first cases of avian flu, and Romania reports suspected avian flu. Both cull birds to prevent the disease from spreading.

October 10 - Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Switzerland announce a ban on poultry imports from Turkey and Romania. The European Commission announces a ban on imports of live birds and feathers from Turkey to the 25-nation EU.

October 11 - Georgia bans poultry imports from countries affected by bird flu and Egypt bans the import of live birds.

October 13 - A strain of the H5 bird flu virus has been detected in samples from Romanian ducks found in the Danube delta, confirming the virus has arrived in Europe.

-- The European Commission confirms the Romanian findings and immediately says it will ban Romanian imports.

-- The world animal health body says veterinary authorities in Iran have detected a high death rate among wild waterfowl but the cause remains unclear. Iran says there is no evidence so far that bird flu is the cause.

- The European Commission confirms that the virus found in Turkey is avian flu H5N1 high pathogenic virus.

October 18 - Bird flu confirmed on Greek island.

- REUTERS