April 26, 2004

Russia Reports Newcastle Disease Outbreak
 

Russia has reported an outbreak of the highly contagious poultry virus, Newcastle disease, among chickens in a southern region near Ukraine, Interfax news agency said on Friday.

Officials in the regional administration in Bryansk declined to confirm the report. Russia is a major poultry importer.

The virus is fatal for fowl but harmless to humans.

Interfax said 650 chickens had already died from the disease on private farms. The disease is different to avian flu, the virus that has recently devastated poultry in several Asian countries. However it can also wipe out entire flocks.

Vaccination and other measures to fend off the outbreak are under way, Ivan Vasilenko, a regional epidemiological official, told Interfax.

The disease may have come from migratory birds such as pigeons. The birds presumably originate from Ukraine, "where the situation with this disease has been quite alarming," Vasilenko said.

An official in Ukraine's veterinarian inspectorate told Reuters in Kiev there was no Newcastle disease in Ukraine.

In March, Belgium reported an outbreak of the disease among pet pigeons in the northwest of the country.

The disease affects the birds' respiratory, nervous and digestive systems. It spreads mainly via direct contact between healthy birds, and the bodily discharges of infected birds.