According to a top animal health expert the H5N1 bird flu virus has now stabilised but the risk that it could mutate into a new dangerous form remains.
The highly pathogenic virus has to date infected more than 340 people and killed 212 along with millions of birds, since it re-emerged in Asia in 2003.
At present the virus does not easily spread between people and most victims have been infected through close contact with sick poultry.
The virus has now spread through Asia, Africa and Europe, affecting both poultry and wild birds.
Bernard Vallat, President of the world animal health body OIE says bird flu cases are still regularly reported to the OIE and will always remain a risk, be it H5N1 or another.
But Vallat also says the bird flu crisis had been "badly handled" and the risk overestimated and two years were lost in Vietnam when it could have been stopped.
Vallat says the H5N1 virus has proved extremely stable, despite concerns that it could mutate into a form that could spread easily among humans.
Vallat believes the widespread panic that followed the outbreak drew the attention of a larger number of governments to the risks of a pandemic and as a result countries were far better prepared.
He says Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria, where the disease is endemic, remain the biggest concern because they could act as reservoirs for the virus; he says the risks from H5N1 would be "greatly diminished" if the virus were eradicated in these countries.
He says vaccination campaigns were needed in countries where H5N1 has become endemic.