MSNBC Bird flu spreading to more regions in Russia

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>

>Bird flu spreading to more regions in Russia

>Bird flu has been officially confirmed in two

>more Russian regions, and the disease may also

>be spreading in Northern Kazakhstan, officials

>said.

>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8839692/

>

 

Bird flu spreading to more regions in Russia

Deadly virus may also be in Kazakhstan, health officials say

Reuters

Updated: 2:41 p.m. ET Aug. 5, 2005

 

 

MOSCOW - Bird flu has been officially confirmed

in two more Russian regions, and the disease may

also be spreading in Northern Kazakhstan,

officials said on Friday.

 

Health officials fear that a subtype of bird flu

dangerous to humans may mutate into a lethal

strain that could rival or exceed the Spanish flu

pandemic that killed 20-40 million people

worldwide at the end of World War One.

 

The presence of the highly pathogenic H5N1

subtype that can cause disease in humans has so

far only been confirmed in one Russian region,

Novosibirsk. But four other Siberian regions have

been confirmed to have some sort of bird flu

virus.

 

Russia's Agriculture ministry said on Friday the

disease had been confirmed in wildfowl in two

locations in the Kurgan region and in one in the

Omsk region. Bird flu has already been confirmed

in the Altai and Tyumen regions.

 

The ministry statement said the virus found in

Kurgan and Omsk did not appear to be highly

pathogenic.

 

H5N1 bird flu has killed more than 50 people in

Asia since late 2003, mostly in Vietnam. Bird flu

has also led to the death of 140 million birds at

a cost running to billions of dollars.

 

Russia has culled over 10,000 domestic birds in

the last few days to stop the virus spreading,

the emergencies ministry said.

 

The ministry said in a statement no new deaths

had occurred among wildfowl and domestic poultry

on Thursday in the Altai, Tyumen and Omsk regions.

 

However, 139 birds were found dead in Novosibirsk region.

 

Kazakhstan confirms virus' presence

Senior veterinary officials in neighboring

Kazakhstan have confirmed bird flu has broken out

in the Pavlodar region, bordering Novosibirsk.

 

Officials there said it was premature to say

whether the Pavlodar outbreak was dangerous to

humans.

 

But a disease with similar symptoms is already

killing birds in neighboring regions.

 

Some 364 hens have died in a village in the

eastern Kazakh region, while 37 wild ducks have

been found dead at the Vinogradovka lake in the

Akmola region, the Kazakh Emergencies Ministry

said on its official Web site www.emer.kz

 

It said sanitary and veterinary controls were

being heightened to contain the spread of the

disease, while in Akmola 70 hens and 30 ducks

living on private farms that may have been in

contact with wild ducks had been destroyed.

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© 2005 MSNBC.com

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8839692/

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