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Russia Begins Destroying Poultry Following Outbreak of Bird Flu
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Posted by: Khashyar

Russia Begins Destroying Poultry Following Outbreak of Bird Flu

By Lisa McAdams
VOA
Moscow
02 August 2005

Russian authorities have begun to slaughter poultry in nearly 20 villages in the Siberian province of Novosibirsk, where a deadly strain of bird-flu virus has just been confirmed. Government health officials say there is no cause for alarm, and that all precautionary measures are being taken.

The agriculture ministry says the avian flu outbreak appears relatively contained to a Siberian region. The bad news is that preliminary tests of the samples taken from affected birds show the flu virus strain is of the deadly H5N1 type that can be transmitted to humans.

An outbreak of this flu earlier killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia.

The Russian government has imposed a ban on the transportation of birds, bird products, and feed for domestic birds out of the affected areas, which include neighboring Omsk and Altai provinces. It has also formed a special commission made up of officials from the interior ministry, the emergency ministry, the veterinary inspectorate, and the sanitary control service.

Special units in Novosibirsk Tuesday began killing some 65,000 chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys from family farms in the quarantine zone.

Victor Maleev is a department head at the Russian Health Ministry's Central Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology. He tells VOA migratory birds that stop in a lake area in Novosibirsk may be responsible for the outbreak, which has already killed more than 2,000 local birds.

Mr. Maleev says to date, there have been no known cases of human-to-human transmission of bird flu. But he warns people to practice good hygiene when dealing with poultry either on the farm or preparing it in the kitchen. Mr. Maleev says people should wash their hands before and after preparing chicken, turkey or duck meat and make sure the meat is well cooked. For poultry-workers, who may come into contact with infected birds, he advises wearing protective clothing, such as gloves and a face mask. And, he says they should follow disinfection procedures after work.

Birds infected with the virus turn blue before they die. In humans, the virus causes a stomach ache and may lead to respiratory collapse.

In a related development, Kazakh media are reporting a suspected case of bird flu contracted by a poultry farm worker in a region close to the border with Novosibirsk. The government has not confirmed the reports. Experts say it could take several days before test results are known.

The arrival of bird flu virus deals a blow to the Russian poultry industry, which is already facing stiff competition from U.S. and European imports.

Posted by: novotul

The H5N1 bird flu that has spread to Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Tuymen, and Turgan regions of Russia, and nearby areas in Mongolia and Kazakhstan appears to be different from the varieties that have caused illness and death in small groups of people in southeast Asia.

It appears to be related to Qinghai Lake (in NW China) H5N1 whose DNA sequence is the subject of recent publications in Nature and Science. It may be worrisome that the Chinese government has shut down the laboratory in Hong Kong that published this work, apparently for disclosing unspecified Chinese state secrets in these publications. The Qinghai variant infects a larger variety of birds than SE asian variants, including migratory birds such as geese and ducks that migrate between Siberia and North America, and appears more virulent, at least in birds. It lacks a DNA sequence that makes SE Asian H5N1 influenza vulnerable to Tamiflu, an antiviral medication various western governments are stockpiling to cope with a possible H5N1 pandemic. Fortunately, the Qinghai variant may be sensitive to amantidine and ramantidine, according to DNA sequence information, although this has not been tested. Vector, in Novosibirsk, has sequenced 9 Russian avian H5N1 isolates but has not yet published the DNA sequences. There is work to develop a H5N1 vaccine to prevent a pandemic. Unfortunately, that vaccine is based on Vietnamese variants, and the Qinghai variant has evolved sufficiently far away from the SE asian variants that the pandemic vaccine will likely not confer immunity to Qinghai H5N1.

There are three possible clusters of human illness in Kazakhstan (although the Kazakh authorities appear to be suppressing important information) and it seems that the Chinese government is suppressing news of more severe outbreaks near Qinghai that, according to unverified reports, are associated with over 100 fatalities. Singapore newspapers report that about 20 journalist working with one organization in China have been arrested for their coverage of the Qinghai outbreak.

(The Chinese may be very busy trying to cope with a simultaneous outbreak of -- who knows what? -- in Sichaun that, according to Boxun reports, have killed hundreds of people rather than the three dozen that the Chinese admit to. Even the WHO (World Health Organization) is questioning the Chinese explanation that they are coping with a streptococcus suis outbreak. S. suis is common worldwide, hard to spread among people, and rarely fatal. The Sichaun outbreak appears to have a fatality rate approaching 90%, and death can be very rapid. Observers more knowledgeable than me are suggesting that the Sichaun situation looks more like a virulent H5N1 that might have hybridized with Ebola. The existence of Ebola in China appears to be another state secret leaking out.)

The situation is evolving rapidly and a good source of breaking news on this is http://www.recombinomics.com/whats_new.html

There are, so far, no acknowledged cases of bird flu in people in Russia. One can hope that Russia will respond more transparently than China or Kazakhstan. It appears likely that H5N1 will be endemic in birds through Europe and north Asia by the end of the upcoming flu season.

Posted by: Jutman

Quote:

The arrival of bird flu virus deals a blow to the Russian poultry industry, which is already facing stiff competition from U.S. and European imports.

Escpeailly, as espected EU has banned all import of poultry from Russia since the outbreak.