(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-10 14:33

Azerbaijan said on Friday that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had been found in wild birds on the Caspian Sea.

Samples from wild birds in the Caspian Sea were sent for tests to London and showed the bird flu strain was present, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.

"In some analyses the H5N1 bird flu strain was found," the spokesman told Reuters. "Bird flu has not yet been found in the human population."

Azerbaijan, which has borders with Turkey, Russia, Iran, Armenia and Georgia, has been testing birds after poultry deaths in the south of the country.

H5N1 avian influenza has swept through flocks in Asia and into Europe, killing or prompting the culling of hundreds of millions of birds.

The H5N1 virus has killed people across Asia and neighbouring Turkey.

It remains primarily a virus of birds, but experts fear it could change into a form easily transmitted from person to person and spread around the world killing millions.