The Spanish Agriculture Ministry has confirmed that country's first case of the bird flu. A wild bird found dead in the northern province of Alava was tested and has the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus.
Zsuzsanna Jakab, the director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said the bird flu will likely spread throughout Europe this year.
'As long as the virus is endemic in Asia and parts of Africa, it's quite likely it will reappear in Europe,' Jakab announced at a news conference in Brussels on Friday.
Spain is on the route migrating birds take from Africa to northern Europe.
Thus far, there have been 229 human cases of the bird flu confirmed by the World Health Organization since 2003. 130 of the cases were fatal.
Scientists fear that if the H5N1 strain of the flu mutates so that it can be passed directly between humans, a worldwide pandemic may result. Thus far, all human cases are believed to have been contracted by close contact with infected birds. Experts say tens of millions of people may die if a pandemic breaks out. It is projected to be the most serious flu pandemic since the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak that killed at least 40 million people in the wake of World War I.
