Qinghai H5N1 Spread in Russia
Recombinomics Commentary
February 21, 2007
Alexei Alexeyenko, spokesman for animal and plant health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, said the H5N1 strain was identified in the republic of Adygeya, a region in the North Caucasus.
Bird deaths also have been registered at farms in Dmitrov district, part of Moscow region, and Borovsk district in the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to the south.
The above comments describe further spread of H5N1 in Russia. The two new locations near Moscow are linked to the pet market in the suburbs southwest of Moscow. The number of locations is at least eight, which ring Moscow.
The first two outbreaks are confirmed in this week’s OIE report, which also provides additional information in the three locations in Krasnodar, reported last month. Now there are two more outbreaks in the adjacent Adygeya.
There are also dead and dying birds washing up on the adjacent shores of Abhkazia (see video), although H5N1 infections have been denied.
The expanding outbreaks of H5N1 in Moscow suburbs as well as five outbreaks in Krasnodor / Adygeya near the Black Sea as well as H5N1 outbreaks in southeastern Turkey indicate Qinghai H5N1 is widespread in the region, raising serious doubts about the Abkhazia denials, as well as reporting failures in neighboring countries in the Caucasus as well as the Middle East, where multiple human and poultry H5N1 infections in the Nile Delta have been reported.
Media sources
Phylogenetic Trees