- H5N1 bird flu virus first recognized in Republic of Korea
- Oubreaks in 10 countries across East and Southeast Asia, closing down regional markets for poultry and poultry products overnight. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf appeals to donors for help, warning that only "a brief window of opportunity" exists to contain the disease.
- FAO provides US$ 5.5 million from its own resources to Asian countries to fight bird flu.
- FAO-OIE-WHO hold emergency strategy meeting in Rome with experts from 14 countries.
- Officials, international experts, donors and development organizations from 23 Asia-Pacific countries meet in Bangkok for a regional emergency meeting.
- In Asia, 23 people have died so far and 100 million poultry have died or been culled.
- FAO-OIE warn that domestic ducks may be acting as a silent reservoir for disease transmission (See related story: Cracking the mystery of how disease spread).
- FAO-OIE-WHO organize regional meeting in Ho Chi Minh City. FAO warns that bird flu could lead to new global human influenza pandemic.
- Close to 140 million birds have died or been destroyed in Asian epidemic to date, leaving many farmers in deep debt. Cost to Asian farmers in 2004 estimated at US$10 billion.
- FAO sends expert to DPR Korea, helping to contain bird flu outbreak there.
- In China, 6 000 migratory birds die from H5N1 virus.
- Russia and Kazakhstan confirm H5N1 outbreaks in poultry and wild birds.
- In Mongolia, about 90 migratory birds die of bird flu.
- FAO warns that Asian bird flu is likely to be carried over long distances along the flyways of wild water birds to the Middle East, Europe, South Asia and Africa.
- UN system coordinator for avian and human influenza takes up residence at UN Headquarters.
- Bird flu reaches Romania and Turkey through wild bird migration.
- FAO estimates that the livelihoods of 200 million poor small-scale farmers have been seriously affected by the disease.
- International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza in Beijing, China, commits US$1.9 billion to fighting the disease.
- The World Bank estimates that a human influenza pandemic caused by a virus mutated from avian flu could cost the global economy US$800 billion per year.
- Bird flu reaches Nigeria.
- In Europe, bird flu spreads quickly westward through wild birds (Italy, Greece, Switzerland).
- Bird flu now confirmed in 45 countries on three continents.
- FAO-OIE host an international scientific conference on avian influenza and wild birds.
