April 13, 2006

Vaccinated fowls die of H5N1 bird flu in southern Russia

A village in southern Russia has come under quarantine after birds already vaccinated against bird flu died in the past few days, a local official said Thursday.

20 of the 45 birds vaccinated against the lethal H5N1 strain of the disease had died in a Volgograd region village. Authorities confirmed the 20 birds were tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Bird flu had hit another village in the region in late March, where 85 backyard poultry died.

Officials said around 20 million birds had been vaccinated in 62 Russian regions since Mar 10.

Around 1.1 million birds had died of the disease in Russia while 300,000 have been culled since Feb 3, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry.

No human cases of bird flu have been detected in Russia.