A case of bird flu of the H7 strain was registered in Bulgaria's northern town of Shumen, officials reported Friday.

The virus has been found in a killed wild duck in Kamchiya River valley, between the villages of Khan Krum and Milanovo.

"The H7 strain is proved dangerous for the birds but we still cannot claim it could not affect people as well," the director of the regional veterinary medicine service Hristo Hristov said.

"The migratory bird was just a carrier of the virus," he added.

The authorities guaranteed they are to take immediate precautionary measures for stopping the virus' spread and called on the local people not to panic.

The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza emerged in southeastern Asia in 2003, taking the lives of 180 people, with Indonesia hit the worst.

It has spread throughout the world, causing millions of poultry to be culled as a precautionary measure.

Several southeastern European countries have undergone bird flu scares since 2005, most notably Romania, which has spent millions in hard currency on flu vaccines and to destroy infected birds to prevent its spread.

The virus can now be transmitted only from poultry to people, but scientists fear it could mutate into a form that can be transmitted among humans, which could trigger a flu pandemic that would put millions of lives at risk.

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