(The following mainly focuses on developments affecting Asia and Africa. It doesn't include every human death or outbreak in poultry. Bird flu refers to the H5N1 strain.)

1996 - H5N1 detected in a goose in Guangdong province, China

1997 - First documented outbreak of human H5N1 infection. Six of the 18 people infected die. Hong Kong's entire poultry population is destroyed

2003

Dec - South Korea confirms bird flu at a chicken farm near Seoul and begins mass cull

2004

Jan - Vietnam says bird flu found in poultry and confirms human cases. Thailand confirms its first human cases

Aug/Sep/Oct - Vietnam and Thailand report more fatal human cases. Thailand says it has found a case where one human probably infected another

2005

Feb - Cambodia reports its first human case

Apr - Migratory birds, infected with H5N1, begin dying in Qinhai Lake, central China. Viruses detected later in 2005 in countries along migratory routes are found to be almost identical to the Qinhai Lake virus

Jul - Indonesia reports its first human case

Jul/Aug - Russia and Kazakhstan report outbreaks in poultry. Dead migratory birds reported in vicinity

Oct - First H5N1 cases in poultry in Turkey, prompting EU to ban imports of live birds and feathers from Turkey. H5N1 confirmed in ducks in Romania - first case in mainland Europe

Nov - Kuwait reports H5N1 in a flamingo - first known case in Gulf Arab region. China reports its first two human cases (but see below)

2006

Jan - International donors pledge $1.9 billion to combat spread of bird flu

Feb - WHO confirms a person has died from bird flu in Iraq. First African cases of H5N1 detected in poultry in northern Nigeria. India and Egypt also find first cases. France confirms H5N1 at a farm where thousands of turkeys have died - the first cases in farm birds in the EU. Tests show H5N1 in domestic ducks in Niger

Apr - Ivory Coast detects its first outbreaks in birds - the sixth African nation to confirm the virus after Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Cameroon

May - Djibouti announces first confirmed human case in Horn of Africa

Aug - China says its first H5N1 human case was in 2003, not 2005 as it originally reported

Sep - China shares long-sought-after samples of H5N1 in what many scientists view as a breakthrough in cooperation

Dec - Foreign donors pledge an additional $476 million for H5N1 fight

2007

Feb - WHO confirms bird flu has killed a Nigerian woman - the first known human fatality in sub-Saharan Africa. Indonesia says it will stop sharing H5N1 virus samples with foreign laboratories and signs a pact with U.S. firm Baxter to develop a vaccine

May - Researchers report that antibodies taken from Vietnamese bird flu survivors protected mice from several strains of the virus as late as 72 hours after infection, raising hope of a new way to treat people

Jun - An Indonesian teenager dies, raising death toll to 79. A girl dies in Egypt, raising toll to 15

Nov - Man dies from H5N1 in Pakistan, the country's first human case - the cause is confirmed by WHO in December

Dec - Donors pledge $406 million in additional funds to combat virus. WHO confirms Myanmar's first human case of bird flu in a young girl

2008

Jan - Brid flu spreads in eastern India

Dec - Indonesia's death toll rises to 113