January 9, 2006

Ukraine reintroduces bird flu quarantine in Crimea

The regional cabinet of ministers of the Ukraine's Crimea peninsula has imposed quarantine in Solnechnoe in the Simferopol region, where seven cases of bird flu have been confirmed, according to the Crimean government press service.

Meanwhile, the cause of the disease that killed 40,000 chickens in three large-scale farms elsewhere in the Crimea between Dec 30 and Thursday Jan 5 has not been established yet.

The local government said originally it was bird flu but now the government is saying further laboratory tests have notfound bird flu. According to some officials, it may be Newcastle disease, but tests are being still carried out.

The recent outbreak of bird flu in the Crimean peninsula, first reported in mid-October 2005, prompted Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko to declare a state of emergency Dec 3 in the affected villages in the peninsula and order a mandatory cull.

Yushchenko lifted the state of emergency Dec 29, saying bird flu had been eradicated in the Crimea.

The presence of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which is dangerous to humans, was officially confirmed Dec 13, during the first outbreak of the disease in the peninsula.

The Crimean government said Wednesday no H5N1 strain had been found in the samples from birds currently dying in the peninsula.