China reported the world’s first human infection of the H10N3 bird flu strain on Tuesday but said the risk of it spreading widely among people was low.

A 41-year-old man was admitted to hospital with fever symptoms in Zhenjiang on April 28 and was diagnosed with H10N3 a month later, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement.

“The risk of large-scale spread is extremely low,” the NHC said, adding that the man was in a stable condition.

It described H10N3 as low pathogenic — less likely to cause death or severe illness — in birds. Several strains of bird flu have been found among animals in China but mass outbreaks in humans are rare. The last human epidemic of bird flu in China occurred in late 2016 to 2017, with the H7N9 virus.