February 20, 2007

 

150 birds dead in Moscow where H5N1 bird flu found

 

 

At least 150 domestic birds have died in suburban Moscow districts where the H5N1 bird flu strain was detected in the first outbreak close to the Russian capital, officials said Monday.

 

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said disinfection and quarantine measures were being carried out in five districts where poultry deaths were reported. The presence of H5N1 so far has been confirmed in two of them, it said in a statement.

 

The bird flu cases have been traced to a single animal market just outside Moscow city limits, said Alexei Alexeyenko, a spokesman for the federal agricultural oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor. He said the strain that sickened birds near Moscow was of a highly virulent subtype and could have originated in Asia, the Caucasus region or the Balkans.

 

"The strain is very dangerous and can affect humans," Alexeyenko said.

 

He said poultry that died belonged to private individuals who had bought birds recently, and the birds hadn't been vaccinated during preventive inoculation campaigns.

 

Officials said several people who had been in close contact with the dead birds were taken in for medical observation, but no health problems had been reported.

 

Many people in the Moscow suburbs keep small numbers of chickens and other farm animals in their yards.

 

No human cases of bird flu have been reported in Russia, which had its first reported cases of the H5N1 strain in Siberia in 2005. Outbreaks have since occurred farther west, but mostly in southern areas distant from the capital.

 

Bird flu cases were registered in 93 towns or settlements in Siberia and southern Russia last year, according to official statistics. The country's first outbreak this year was registered last month in the Krasnodar territory, an agricultural region near the Black Sea.

 

Since it began ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, the H5N1 strain has killed at least 167 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

 

Although it remains difficult for humans to catch, health authorities across the world are monitoring the H5N1 strain out of concern it could mutate into a form that easily spreads from person to person and spark a pandemic.