Italy has found a form of the H5N1 virus in a wild duck, but the Health Ministry said on Thursday it was not dangerous and bore no relation to the strain of Asian avian influenza that has killed more than 60 people.

The H5N1 virus was identified on Wednesday in a testing centre in northern Italy, the health ministry said. It added the virus was genetically similar to strains frequently found among wild waterfowl in Europe, and not highly pathogenic.

"There is no alarm. There is no new concern," ministry official Elisabetta Alberti Casellati said.

"The case of H5N1 identified yesterday ... has nothing to do with the cases of Avian influenza registered in Asian countries, because it deals with a low pathogenic strain."

The virus was found in only one bird in the more than a thousand tested so far, the ministry said.

The testing centre said in a statement that the wild duck carrying the strain of H5N1 was identified in Modena province in northern Italy. It said the virus was "unaggressive" and "not dangerous to humans".

The bird was tested after a hunter had killed it.

Italy has reported no cases of the deadly Asian avian flu virus, which is endemic in poultry across Asia. It has been found in birds in eastern Europe and there are fears migrating flocks could spread it around the globe.

More than 60 people have died from bird flu and scientists fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

An official at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation told Reuters it was possible for Italy to have registered a form of the H5N1 virus that had no relation to the Asian strain.

"That is possible. When we look at H5N1, not all of them are the same," said Juan Lubroth, a senior officer at the FAO´s animal health service.

"What you would need to look at is some sequencing analyses to look at the genes the virus is carrying."