GENEVA, Feb 4: The World Health Organisation on Sunday warned that European nations must not be lulled into a false sense of security about bird flu, following an outbreak among poultry at a British farm.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said Britain and Europe could just as easily be the source of the feared mutation of the H5N1 bird flu virus that might trigger a human pandemic, as Africa and its blighted health care services.

“A mutation could occur anywhere. Someone was saying in relation to the British outbreak, 'Oh it won't happen in Europe'. That's really a kind of false security that is being built up,” Hartl said.

Scientists fear that the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu may mutate into a form that could be easily transmissible among humans.—AFP