The H5 sub-type of bird flu has been found in a dead wild duck in France, and the government said it was almost certainly the lethal H5N1 strain.

Authorities reported Africa’s first case of a deadly bird-flu strain, saying officials in afflicted Nigeria need help to prevent its spread on an impoverished continent poorly equipped to fight an outbreak.

THE deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria - the first reported outbreak in Africa, the World Organisation for Animal Health said yesterday.