H5N1 Spreads in Moscow Suburbs
Recombinomics Commentary
February 19, 2007
The presence of H5N1, confirmed by tests late Saturday, was the first such outbreak to be recorded so close to the Russian capital.
Four separate incidences of domestic poultry dying involved birds that were purchased at a market located just outside the Moscow city limits, federal agricultural oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman Alexei Alexeyenko told The Associated Press.
The market was closed Saturday and experts were trying to determine the original source for the birds on sale there, he said.
On Saturday, Alexeyenko said tests had confirmed the H5N1 strain in poultry found dead in two districts where roughly two dozen birds had died -- Odintsovo and Domodedovo. Results of tests taken in a third district where nearly four dozen birds died -- Podolsk -- were still pending, he said.
The Moscow region's chief veterinarian, Olga Gavrilenko, told Ekho Moskvy radio on Sunday that dead domestic birds had been reported in the northern Taldom district.
Russian news agencies also reported a fifth incident of birds dying in the southwestern Naro-Fominsk district,
The above comments describe multiple outbreaks of H5N1 in suburbs ringing Moscow. Many of the outbreaks are said to be linked to a local market, but the source of the infection in the market is unclear.
Recently, outbreaks of the Qinghai strain of H5N1 were reported along the northern shore of the Black Sea in Krasnodar and there has recently been a large die off of migratory birds in Krasnodar.
Last year Qinghai H5N1 was confirmed in Tula, just south of Moscow, but the current series of outbreaks have surrounded the city.
Recently, there have been additional outbreaks of H5N1 in Pakistan, Hungary, England, Egypt, Turkey, and Nigeria. Last year, a large number of countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa reported H5N1 outbreaks fro the first time in February and March.
Similar reports are expected this year as the H5N1 in wild birds in the region combine with winter conditions to produce deaths that are identified by a poor surveillance network in the region.
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Phylogenetic Trees