Thousands tested after Russian H5N1 outbreak
5,000 residents of the outskirts of Moscow are being tested after cases of bird flu are found 30 miles from the capital
Thousands of Russians were undergoing tests tonight after an outbreak of bird flu at chicken farms on the outskirts of Moscow.
Health officials confirmed that chickens at two farms within 30 miles of the capital had died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Dead birds were also being tested at three other locations around Moscow that are suspected of being contaminated.
?Medical monitoring is under way for 5,453 residents in the relevant areas, including 20 citizens who were in direct contact with the infected birds,? said Gennady Onishchenko, Russia?s chief epidemiologist. He added that no illnesses had been reported among humans so far.
This is the first time that bird flu has been detected so close to Moscow, which is home to more than 10 million people. Officials quickly established quarantine zones around villages in the affected areas and commenced vaccination programmes for birds.
Veterinary officials have established that the bird flu virus came from chickens bought at a Moscow bird market. More than 150 birds have died at private farms around the city in the past 10 days.
?From the very beginning we have been taking safety measures assuming that it was this strain so the confirmation does not change anything,? said Nikolai Vlasov, director of veterinary inspection for Russia?s state agricultural agency.
H5N1 has killed 164 people out of 270 reported human infections worldwide since 2003. The fear among health experts is that the deadly bird virus could mutate and spread from human to human, triggering a worldwide pandemic.
The virus was previously found in 2005 in poultry plants in Russia?s Krasnodar region, 625 miles south of Moscow. Sergei Yeremin, director of the World Health Organisation?s bird flu programme in Russia, said that this experience had left Russia ?highly prepared? for the current outbreak.
?There have been no cases of human infection in Russia though it is located in a migratory zone for wild birds. This is one of the signs that Russia is ready,? he said. ?What worries us more is the source of the infected birds, how they wound up at the market.?
The Moscow regional prosecutor said in a statement that it had begun a criminal inquiry to establish ?the source of the illness and the guilty parties who violated veterinary rules?.
Russia?s Interior Ministry ordered measures to prevent any possible spread of the infection. Police visited every house in the affected districts to seek information about possible sick birds, while road traffic inspectors were checking all poultry vehicles.
Valery Sitnikov, Moscow?s chief veterinarian, said that he was confident that the spread of the virus had been contained. He said: ?The incubation period of the disease is one to two days which means that if there had been a massive die-off of hens elsewhere, we would have learned about it.? Estonia responded to the outbreak by banning the sale of birds in markets. Azerbaijan also banned imports of poultry from farms around Moscow.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said that more than 128 million doses of bird flu vaccine had been distributed around the regions of Russia since last year. More than 94 million birds had been vaccinated.
5,000 residents of the outskirts of Moscow are being tested after cases of bird flu are found 30 miles from the capital
Thousands of Russians were undergoing tests tonight after an outbreak of bird flu at chicken farms on the outskirts of Moscow.
Health officials confirmed that chickens at two farms within 30 miles of the capital had died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Dead birds were also being tested at three other locations around Moscow that are suspected of being contaminated.
?Medical monitoring is under way for 5,453 residents in the relevant areas, including 20 citizens who were in direct contact with the infected birds,? said Gennady Onishchenko, Russia?s chief epidemiologist. He added that no illnesses had been reported among humans so far.
This is the first time that bird flu has been detected so close to Moscow, which is home to more than 10 million people. Officials quickly established quarantine zones around villages in the affected areas and commenced vaccination programmes for birds.
Veterinary officials have established that the bird flu virus came from chickens bought at a Moscow bird market. More than 150 birds have died at private farms around the city in the past 10 days.
?From the very beginning we have been taking safety measures assuming that it was this strain so the confirmation does not change anything,? said Nikolai Vlasov, director of veterinary inspection for Russia?s state agricultural agency.
H5N1 has killed 164 people out of 270 reported human infections worldwide since 2003. The fear among health experts is that the deadly bird virus could mutate and spread from human to human, triggering a worldwide pandemic.
The virus was previously found in 2005 in poultry plants in Russia?s Krasnodar region, 625 miles south of Moscow. Sergei Yeremin, director of the World Health Organisation?s bird flu programme in Russia, said that this experience had left Russia ?highly prepared? for the current outbreak.
?There have been no cases of human infection in Russia though it is located in a migratory zone for wild birds. This is one of the signs that Russia is ready,? he said. ?What worries us more is the source of the infected birds, how they wound up at the market.?
The Moscow regional prosecutor said in a statement that it had begun a criminal inquiry to establish ?the source of the illness and the guilty parties who violated veterinary rules?.
Russia?s Interior Ministry ordered measures to prevent any possible spread of the infection. Police visited every house in the affected districts to seek information about possible sick birds, while road traffic inspectors were checking all poultry vehicles.
Valery Sitnikov, Moscow?s chief veterinarian, said that he was confident that the spread of the virus had been contained. He said: ?The incubation period of the disease is one to two days which means that if there had been a massive die-off of hens elsewhere, we would have learned about it.? Estonia responded to the outbreak by banning the sale of birds in markets. Azerbaijan also banned imports of poultry from farms around Moscow.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said that more than 128 million doses of bird flu vaccine had been distributed around the regions of Russia since last year. More than 94 million birds had been vaccinated.