Russia has registered the first case of a strain of bird flu virus named AH5N8 being passed to humans from birds and has reported the case to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Anna Popova, head of consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Saturday.

Russia reported the case to the WHO "several days ago, just as we became absolutely certain of our results," Popova said on Rossiya 24 state TV.