Scientists at Kansas State University fear that migratory birds from the north will mix in the summer breeding grounds and spread avian flu when they fly south for the winter.

The pathogenic strain of avian influenza - also referred to as H5:N1 - has been reported in Southeast Asia and a handful of European countries, but not in the U.S

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that Indonesia has so far recorded the world's most number of human deaths from bird flu, with the death toll placed at 94. Of the total number, almost all cases originated from sick poultry.

The latest fatality was a woman from Cengkarang in western part of Jakarta, who died Tuesday after being admitted in the hospital for six days. She was tested positive of H5N1 strain, according to the country's Ministry of Health

More than 600,000 chickens were culled at a Russian farm on Tuesday after tests confirmed an outbreak of the avian influenza virus.

The chickens at the Gulyai-Borisovskaya farm in the Rostov-on-Don region were destroyed to prevent the H5N1 virus from spreading

A ranking official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said there was a possibility of limited human-to-human bird flu transmission involving a five-member family in Pakistan.

At least two of the five brothers who were tested positive for the bird flu virus last month have died, leaving the organization to conclude that the disease may spread from one human to another

At least two Pakistanis have died in a fresh outbreak of avian influenza close to the country's "poultry belt," the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has reported.

Pakistani health officials informed WHO of eight suspected human cases of infection with the H5N1 virus - the virus responsible for outbreaks of bird flu around the world in recent years - in the area around the city of Peshawar