Commentary
Poultry Deaths on Kamchatka Peninsula Near Alaska
Recombinomics Commentary 03:42
June 18, 2008
In the village of Ust-Kozyrevsk Kamchtskogo area on Kamchatka in one of the farmstead of all chickens died suddenly. Veterinarians to begin to worry - not whether it is bird flu. But initial laboratory analysis showed that the birds had died not from the avian influenza virus
Laboratory studies are continuing.
The above translation describes excessive poultry deaths in Kozyrevsk on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia, approximately 400 miles from Alaska (see satellite map). Although initial tests are negative for bird flu, samples have been sent to Moscow for further analysis.
There have been recent H5N1 outbreaks just to the south of this location in Japan, Russia, and South Korea. All of the earlier outbreaks have been the Fujian strain with a clade 2.3.2 HA sequence, and clade 2.3.4 sequences for the other seven gene segments. The outbreaks have been directly linked to wild birds in Russia and Japan. In Japan, the positives have been whooper swans, which migrate north in the summer, raising the possibility of further movement along the Australia East Asia flyway, which passes over Kamchatka and links to Alaska.
More information of the cause of the dead and dying poultry in Kozyrevsk would be useful.
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