(Reuters) -- Feb 16- A swan found in Slovenia this month had died of the H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus, according to laboratory tests performed in Italy, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

The overall human death toll from the virus confirmed by the WHO stands at 91. Here is a short chronology of events since bird flu re-emerged in late 2003.

Dec 15, 2003 - South Korea confirms a highly contagious type of bird flu at a chicken farm near Seoul and begins a mass cull of poultry when the virus rapidly spreads across the country.

Jan 8, 2004 - Vietnam says bird flu found on poultry farms.

Sept 27 - Thailand says it has found a case where one human probably infected another with bird flu. It said this was an isolated incident posing little risk to the population.

Oct 10, 2005 - The European Commission announces a ban on imports of live birds and feathers from Turkey to the EU in response to Turkey reporting its first case of bird flu two days earlier. It was confirmed as H5N1, the type dangerous to humans.

Oct 15 - British tests identify H5N1 in three ducks found dead in Ceamurlia de Jos in Romania, the first case of H5N1 in mainland Europe.

Oct 26 - Croatia confirms H5N1 in wild swans found dead at a pond in eastern Croatia. Nov 11 - Kuwait reports the first known case of deadly bird flu in the Gulf Arab region, saying a culled flamingo was carrying the H5N1 strain.

Dec 3 - Ukraine tackles its first outbreak of bird flu in poultry, sending troops to patrol exclusion zones in the Crimea peninsula where the virus was detected.

Jan 15, 2006 - Turkey says a fourth child from the eastern town of Dogubayazit has died of bird flu.

Jan 18 - International donors pledge $1.9 billion to combat the spread of bird flu at the end of a conference in Beijing.

Jan 29 - H5N1 is confirmed in a sample taken from poultry in northern Cyprus in the latest sign of the spread westwards of the disease to the edges of Europe.

Feb 8 - The first African cases of the deadly H5N1 strain are detected in poultry in the northern Nigerian states of Kano, Kaduna and Plateau.

Feb 11/12 - Italy says six wild swans found in Sicily and on the southern mainland have tested positive for highly pathogenic H5N1. In Greece, three swans found around the Thermaikos Gulf south of Thessaloniki test positive for H5N1. These are the first known cases with the deadly strain of the disease in the European Union.

Feb 13 - The WHO confirms two deaths from bird flu in Indonesia and one in China, taking the overall toll to 91. These comprise the four in Turkey, 18 in Indonesia, eight in China, four in Cambodia, 14 in Thailand, 42 in Vietnam and one in Iraq.

Feb 14 - Iran and Austria report cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. In Iran wild swans were found dead in wetlands on Iran's northern coast.

Feb 15 - Germany confirms two dead swans found on the Baltic island of Ruegen were infected with H5N1.

Feb 16 - Tests confirm a swan found in Slovenia near the Austrian border had died of H5N1.