Christina Ficara - All Headline News Staff Reporter

NEW YORK (AHN) -

Potentially, experts say birds carrying the H5N1 flu virus can spread the illness by migrating to India, Australia, New Zealand and eventually Europe.

Experts fear if the virus spreads beyond its current stronghold in southeast Asia, it could devastate poultry farms and raise the risk of a deadly flu pandemic in people.

Robert G. Webster of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, an author of a report released online Wednesday by the journal, Nature, warns, "They're going to spread this thing further and further across central Asia and Europe and who knows where."

Another report, released by the journal Science, says the finding of the H5N1 infection in migrant birds at Qinghai Lake in western China "indicates that this virus has the potential to be a global threat."

The reports supports concern announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) last week, pressuring China to step up its testing of wild geese and gulls. A WHO official estimated that the flu had killed more than 5,000 wild birds in western China.

If a bird flu virus infects a person who also carries a human flu virus, the result could be a hybrid bug that passes easily from person to person.