Bird flu outbreak in Siberia

2005-10-24 12:18

Moscow - A new outbreak of avian flu has been detected in Russia's Altai region in southern Siberia, after the disease had been detected in the Urals and in the Tula region south of Moscow last week, the Russian news agency reported on Monday, quoting a spokesperson for the local office of emergencies ministry.

Bird flu antibodies were found in the blood of 59 birds that died in seven poultry farms in the village of Pokrovka, the spokesman said. The dead birds have been destroyed and the village placed under quarantine, he added.

The blood samples "have been sent to Novosibirsk for confirmation of the laboratory findings," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the spokesperson as saying.

Outbreaks of avian flu were detected in Russia's south Urals region of Chelyabinsk Saturday and in Tula, 300km south of Moscow, on Tuesday.

In all, fowl in seven areas of Russia have been found to be affected by the virus, which was first discovered in July.

Migratory birds had apparently carried the virus to Siberia from southeast Asia, leading to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of fowl and quarantine measures.

The European Union (EU) already has various bird import bans in place for Romania, Russia, Thailand and Turkey, countries which have had confirmed cases of the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain.

It is also preparing a similar ban for Croatia, where a new bird flu outbreak was announced on Friday with test results awaited for the particularly virulent H5N1 strain.

Within the EU, Britain and Sweden have reported outbreaks of bird flu, although the Swedish case was not caused by the H5N1 strain.

- AFP