LONDON — Britain confirmed its first case of bird flu since 1992, saying the virus that killed a parrot in quarantine is the same deadly strain that has plagued Asia and recently spread to Europe.

Scientists determined the parrot, imported from South America, died of the H5N1 strain that has devastated poultry stocks and killed 61 people in Asia over the past two years, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Sunday.

The virus is being spread by migrating wild birds and has recently been found in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania, spurring efforts around the globe to contain it.

While H5N1 is easily transmitted between birds, it is hard for humans to contract. But experts fear it could mutate into a form of flu that is easily transmitted between humans and cause a pandemic that could kill millions.

Debby Reynolds, DEFRA's chief veterinarian, said the parrot was likely infected with the virus while it was in quarantine with birds from Taiwan. Tests conducted on the Taiwanese birds that had died were inconclusive, the department said.

DEFRA said the virus most closely matched a strain found in ducks in China earlier this year but was not very similar to strains discovered in Romania and Turkey.

On Monday, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed bird flu in another central region.

Seventy birds in the village of Yuzhny in the Tambov region, about 250 miles southeast of Moscow, have fallen ill with the disease, ministry spokeswoman Veronika Smolskaya said. Eight of the birds died and 48 were culled over the past day, the Interfax news agency reported.