Russia - Bird Flu Outbreak Spreads to More Siberian Regions
Published:July 25, 2005
Source :MosNews
The deadly bird flu virus has broken out in four rural districts of Siberia according to preliminary evidence, the head of Russia’s veterinary surveillance service was cited by Interfax as saying.
Following the discovery of the initial outbreak last week in the village of Suzdalka, new evidence suggests outbreaks have occurred in three more districts of the western Siberian region of Novosibirsk — Dovolnoe, Kupino and Chistozernoe, the surveillance service’s head, Sergei Dankvert, said.
“The flu virus... is circulating among bird stocks” in the three districts, Dankvert said.
Authorities in neighboring Kazakhstan have been informed, as the three districts lie close to the Kazakh border, Dankvert said.
The discovery of avian influenza follows measures by Russia to prevent the virus entering the country, including a ban on poultry imports from many Asian countries.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has so far been mainly transmitted between animals. But it has killed at least 58 people in Southeast Asia since 2003 — 39 Vietnamese, 12 Thais, four Cambodians and three Indonesians, AFP reports.
Experts fear it could mutate into a highly infectious strain that could be transmitted from animals to humans, or from humans to humans.
