Here it comes, folks.

BIRD flu, which kills more than half the humans that it infects, could be spread to Europe by migratory geese from China, scientists say.

An estimated 1,500 birds died two months ago at Qinghai Lake in western China and survivors could introduce the virus to parts of Asia beyond the Himalayas. There, they would come into contact with birds that use “migratory flyways” linked to Europe, according to a study published by the journal Nature.

The World Health Organisation estimates that that there is a more than 50 per cent chance that the bird flu virus will mutate into a form leading to a pandemic such as the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 that killed 25 million people.

The Joint Influenza Research Centre of the Shantou University Medical College and the University of Hong Kong said in its study: “Our findings indicate that H5N1 (bird flu) viruses are now being transmitted between migratory birds at the lake.

“There is a danger that it might be carried along the birds’ winter migration routes to densely populated areas in the south Asian sub-continent, a region that seems relatively free of this virus, and spread along migratory flyways linked to Europe.”