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H5N1 Forces Culling of 65K Birds in Novosibirsk Russia
Recombinomics Commentary
August 2, 2005
Veterinaries have started slaughtering all poultry with bird flu in the Novosibirsk region (the south of Western Siberia), a senior official has said.
More than 65,000 domestic fowl in 13 settlements where quarantine measures were imposed last week following an outbreak of bird flu will be slaughtered and burned to prevent the virus spreading, Deputy Governor of the Novosibirsk region Viktor Gergert said.
Compensation will be paid to the local population, he added.
The culling of all poultry in the Novosibirsk Region of southwestern Siberia signals the seriousness on the H5N1 infections in Russia linked to the outbreak at Qinghai Lake. Although H5 has been reported previously in southern Russia, the earlier isolates were not H5N1, but were H5N2 and H5N3 and were closely related to H5 in Europe. The H5N1 is Russia is linked to the migratory bird linked outbreaks in Qinghai and Xinjiang in China and more recently in Kazakhstan.
The are now five suspect bird flu cases in northern Kazakhstan, adjacent to the Novosibirsk region. A quarantine has also been imposed in Altai region, which is south east of Novosibirsk and adjacent to China and Mongolia.
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