Mass vaccination against bird flu begins in Altai region

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13788593&PageNum=0

Mass vaccination against bird flu begins in Altai region
13.04.2009, 13.50

BARNAUL, April 13 (Itar-Tass) - Large-scale vaccination of domestic poultry against bird flu began in Russia?s Altai region on Monday. All in all, 1.3 million vaccinations will be made, sources from the Rosselkhoznadzor agricultural watchdog told Tass on Monday.

The vaccination is made in 38 districts. ?Migration routes of wild birds go through the Altai region from Asian countries, where the main centres of the virus are situated. Migration will begin shortly,? Rosselkhoznadzor inspector Sergei Zamiralov said. ?All poultry farms in the region have tightened security precautions. Poultry brought from abroad are checked,? he said.

The deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor, Nikolai Vlasov, warned on Friday about the possibility of bird flu cases in Russia. He said the Altai region, particularly its western part, the Novosibirsk region and the south of the Tyumen region are the regions where bird flu outbreaks are possible.

Bird flu outbreaks at poultry farms and in private households are also possible in the central part of Russia. ?Starting from November, problems are possible in Dagestan and the Rostov region,? Vlasov said.

Most often bird flu cases are registered in South-East Asia, equatorial Africa and Indonesia. The virus is dangerous because people can get infected. In this case a high mortality rate is registered. Up to 500 bird flu cases among humans are registered in different countries, and almost half of these people have died.

 

[Commonground]

Re: Mass vaccination against bird flu begins in Altai region

Russia: This spring avian flu threatens Altai and Novosibirsk

April 13, 2009

Under the threat of avian influenza have been regions of Siberia: the western Altai, Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Kurgan and south. There may be problems in the Far Eastern District. This information was voiced chief veterinarian Russia Nikolai Vlasov, the ITAR-TASS.

According to him, in these regions are ?Meeting the two versions of the virus?. Nevertheless, according to Vlasov, because the poultry industry in this region almost ?kill?, then serious damage will not be. At risk of avian influenza was also a central part of Russia.

On the problems of avian influenza began to speak in connection with the possibility of its spread during the spring migration of birds. During the press conference Vlasov said that avian flu ?doletit to Russia, as well as the continuing spread of infection in East Asia and Africa. We infected bird came, but Russia will not be anything terrible, because the veterinary services to the developed ?.

Chief veterinarian Russia also announced that this year ?sporadic cases will be lower than last year, and they will not have serious consequences?.

 

[Rocky]

Re: Mass vaccination against bird flu begins in Altai region

so by giving a vaccination for bird flu, which puts enough in someone's system that the body builds up an immunity, what would happen if someone caught H1N1?

could that create a superbug as it passes onward?

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Mass vaccination against bird flu begins in Altai region

Rocky - These machine translated articles can be confusing. The mass vaccinations that are discussed in these articles refer to a bird flu (H5N1)vaccine for poultry. Poultry in many countries have vaccinated for years against bird flu.

As of now there are still only experimental human vaccines for bird flu along with limited production. I imagine with the current emphasis on S-OI A/H1N1 vaccine manufacturing facilities will shift over to producing a vaccine for this new strain.

Right now, bird flu is not easily transmissible between human. To answer your question, there are concern in Asia about human coinfection of this swine virus with bird flu (H5N1). If the transmissibility of this swine strain is transferred to the highly virulent bird flu there could be devastating world wide consequences.