New cases of H5N1 found in southern Russian province

[Snowy Owl]

New cases of H5N1 found in southern Russian province
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http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=118670
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MOSCOW - The H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has been found among dozens of dead hens in Russia's southern region of Volgograd, in the second such case in two weeks, an official with the local administration said.

"A local veterinary laboratory confirmed that the blood of the dead hens contained the H5N1 virus," the Interfax news agency quoted an official with the administration of the district where the birds were found as saying.
Samples were sent to the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, where the type of virus was to be more thoroughly tested, the official said.


Twenty-five hens died Tuesday in the village of Kolobrodovo, in the Frolovo district of the Volgograd region, he said. The village was placed under quarantine.


H5N1 had already been found among dozens of dead birds in the Volgograd region late last month.


Russia's chief veterinarian Sergei Dankvert warned last month that bird flu was posing a growing threat to the country.


In its most dangerous form H5N1 can be deadly to humans, and scientists worry that it could mutate into a form transmissible from human to human.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 186 people have been reported infected with H5N1 and more than half of those have died.


The outbreaks in the Volgograd region follow outbreaks in several other parts of southern Russia as well as in nearby Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

 

[NJ. Preppie]

Re: New cases of H5N1 found in southern Russian province

Previously Vaccinated Chickens Die In Volgograd

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=6366732&PageNum=0

Interesting addition to the above posted news:

MOSCOW, April 14 (Itar-Tass) -- More than 22.5 million of poultry have been vaccinated in Russia against bird flu.
?Vaccination of birds began on March 10, and it is going on at present in Moscow and in 69 regions. A total of 863,000 birds have been vaccinated against the dangerous virus over that past 24 hours alone,? an information department official of the Emergency Situations Ministry told Itar-Tass on Friday.
Bird flu outbreaks have been registered this year in ten regions of Russia -- Dagestan, the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories, Adygeya, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Rostov and Volgograd regions. Infection killed 1.1 million birds, and more than 200,000 were destroyed.
At present, bird flu has been registered in the village of Kolobrodovo in the Volgograd region.
The diagnosis of bird flu that has caused loss of earlier vaccinated poultry in Kolobrodovo has been confirmed by laboratory studies. In the opinion of veterinary physicians, vaccinated poultry was short of time to develop immunity, a process taking 28 days.

 

[NJ. Preppie]

Re: New cases of H5N1 found in southern Russian province

More News on Siberia Outbreak

"Dangerous bird flu epidemic hits Russia's Siberia"
http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/disasters/30-07-2005/8661-flu-0

"Four regions of the Novosibirsk region in Russia's Siberia have been quarantined on account of massive mortality of fowl. Valery Mikheyev, the chief sanitary specialist of the region, told Itar Tass that regional emergency services were taking urgent measures to isolate domestic birds from migrant birds that settle on numerous lakes situated in the area of the quarantine….. Over one thousand domestic birds have already died at poultry farms of the Novosibirsk region.
Apparently, all Novosibirsk poultry farms will have to destroy their chickens and hens – this is the most efficient method to struggle against the dangerous disease. Specialists say that it may take many months of quarantine and other urgent measures to eliminate the consequences of the epidemic."

Russia loses half of farm poultry because of bird flu
http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=6389844&PageNum=0

"TAMBOV, April 14 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia has lost nearly half of farm poultry because of bird flu, Chief Public Health Official and head of the Federal Consumer Rights and Human Well Being Service Gennady Onishchenko said at a Friday meeting of the Central Federal District Council.
“Bird flu has affected nine constituents of the Russian Federation,” Onishchenko said. “Wild birds will fly to Siberia in late April, and a pan-epidemic may spread onto the Urals.

The majority of poultry farms of the Central Federal District are not ready for keeping their birds indoors. “This unpreparedness may fully deprive Russia of poultry farms,” Onishchenko said. "

Another snip: http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///6150/top/

"As Onischenko stated, in 2006 Russia has lost 1,3 trillion birds, which is two times more than in 2005. The greatest danger remains in Siberia and in the Urals: in spring migratory birds will settle in the local lakes, in June-July they will have nestlings, and then the outbreak of bird flu may be expected again." (translation misprint- should say 1.3 million, not trillion birds)

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: New cases of H5N1 found in southern Russian province

Bird flu focus to shift to Siberia - Onishchenko
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http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/...issue=11498510
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TAMBOV. April 15 (Interfax) - The focus of bird flu in Russia might shift to Siberia by the end of April, when birds of passage will migrate to the region in large numbers, Russian chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko has said.
"We are making substantial preventative efforts to avert an epidemic in the Ural and Siberian Federal Districts," Onishchenko said at a meeting of the heads of regional administrations of the Central Federal District in Tambov on Friday.
The forecast for bird flu regarding the Central Federal District "is favorable, as there are no natural wildfowl habitats in the district," he said.
Onishchenko called for a doubling of preventative efforts, in particular, by providing medical institutions with sufficient numbers of artificial respiration devices.