May 2 (Reuters) - Ghana's first case of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed by local laboratories and a U.S. naval laboratory in Egypt, a World Health Organisation official said on Wednesday.

Here is a brief chronology of major bird flu developments in the past year:

Feb. 8, 2006 - The first African cases of the deadly H5N1 strain are detected in poultry in the northern Nigerian states of Kano, Kaduna and Plateau.

Feb. 17 - Egypt finds its first cases of H5N1 in chickens.

Feb. 18 - India announces its first cases of H5N1, finding the virus in poultry in a western state.

Feb. 25 - France confirms H5N1 at a farm in the east where thousands of turkeys have died. It is the first case of the virus in domestic farm birds in the EU.

Aug. 8 - China says its first H5N1 human case was in 2003, not in 2005 as it had originally reported.

Sept. 28 - China shares long-sought-after samples of H5N1 in what many scientists view as a breakthrough in cooperation.

Dec. 8 - Foreign donors pledge an additional $476 million for the global fight against the virus at a meeting in Mali.

Dec. 21 - South Korea confirms a fourth case of bird flu in poultry. In November, it had confirmed its first case of H5N1 in about three years.

Jan. 9, 2007 - China says a farmer from the eastern province of Anhui contracted H5N1 in December, the country's first human case in months. He was released from hospital on Jan. 6.

Jan. 15 - Thailand reports its first outbreak of H5N1 in six months in ducks in the northern province of Phitsanulok.

Jan. 16 - Japan confirms its first outbreak of H5N1 in three years, in poultry in the southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki. Three further outbreaks in poultry are confirmed by Feb. 3.

Jan. 24 - Thousands of birds are culled after an outbreak among geese on a farm in Hungary.

Feb. 3 - WHO confirms bird flu has killed a 22-year-old Nigerian woman, making her the first known human fatality of the H5N1 virus in sub-Saharan Africa.

-- H5N1 is found to have killed 2,500 turkeys on a farm in southeast England, the first outbreak in British poultry.

Feb. 27 - Laos confirms its first human case of bird flu. The patient dies on March 7.

March 27 - WHO establishes mechanism for developing countries to have fair access to bird flu vaccines. Indonesia also agreed to resume sending virus samples to the WHO but this was further delayed in late April.

April 17 - The first bird flu vaccine for people wins U.S. approval as an interim measure in case an influenza pandemic strikes before a better immunization comes along. The vaccine made by French company Sanofi-Aventis will not be sold commercially.

May 2 - WHO confirms Ghana's first case of H5N1 bird flu. Some 1,600 birds had already been incinerated at the infected chicken farm 20 km (13 miles) east of the capital Accra.

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