October 2, 2014

Russia reports bird flu outbreak near Kasakhstan border

Deadly bird flu virus has been detected in two Russian villages near the country's border with Kazakhstan, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports in its website.

Citing data from Russia's agriculture ministry, OIE says the H5N1 serotype of the avian flu virus has been detected in chickens, geese and ducks in two villages of the Altai Krai region.

The Paris-based OIE says the last occurrence of the H5N1 strain in Russia was in December 2012.

No immediate comment from Russia's veterinary service Rosselkhoznadzor was available as of posting time.

The H5N1 virus first infected humans in 1997 during a poultry outbreak in Hong Kong. Since its widespread re-emergence in 2003 and 2004, it spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and has become entrenched in poultry in some countries, resulting in millions of poultry infections, several hundred human cases, and many human deaths.

The latest outbreaks in Russia, which lead to the death or culling of 344 birds, were thought to have come from wild birds.

"Probably, hunted ducks and geese trophies had been placed in backyards where mortality occurred later in domestic birds," the farm ministry said in its report.