July 18, 2006

Russia fears bird flu resurgence in Altai, Novosibirsk

Russia's head veterinarian Gennady Onishchenko issued a statement Monday (Jul 17), in which he warned that a resurgence of bird flu was possible in the Altai and Novosibirsk regions of the country.

Onishchenko said all outbreaks of bird flu reported earlier in Russia had been eliminated except for a few cases among wild water fowl in the Tyva region.

However, he said that new outbreaks were possible in the Altai and Novosibirsk regions among young wild birds, which are now casting their feathers, and whose immunity to the virus was weak.

At the end of May, Russia reported that 168 domestic poultry died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in six private holdings in the village of Troitsk in the Kulundinsky district of Russia's Altai region.

The virus has also been found in samples taken from wild birds in the Shelabolikhinsky and Mikhailovsky districts of the region.

Bird flu cases were reported earlier in the Khabarsy, Uglovsky and Volchikhinsky districts of the Altai region.

Since the beginning of this year, 1.47 million birds have died in Russia of bird flu and 334,666 birds have been culled.