The flu virus could become resistant to the drug Tamiflu because residues of the drug get into the water supply, according to Swedish researchers.
The risk poses a "serious threat to public health" in the event of a major flu outbreak, the researchers say.
Researchers have found traces of the drug in river water in Japan during its 2007 flu season and later in European river water during the swine flu pandemic of 2009.
The researchers warn that this will expose birds to the drug, especially ducks, leading to any flu viruses that infect them also being exposed to it.
And they have established that conventional water purification plants fail to remove the traces of the drug from waste water.
Their findings have led the Swedish government to back the research at the universities of Umeå and Uppsala with a grant of 14 million kroner.
Researcher Dr Josef Järhult, of Uppsala University, said: "When ducks swim in water with environmentally relevant concentrations their influenza virus develop resistance.
"If a resistant influenza virus is spread to humans and causes a pandemic, this is a serious threat to public health since it takes many months to produce vaccine. We are therefore referred to the use of antiviral drugs during a pandemic’s first wave."
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