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H5N1 Wild Bird Flu Spreads to Kursk in Western Russia?
Recombinomics Commentary
August 17, 2005
According to the Ministry's report for today makes about 11,300 poultry heads dead of the bird flu in Russia. Now the Ministry has received confirmation of the epidemic in Kursk Oblast.
Since there have been no follow-up reports on Kursk, I am assuming that the outbreak in Shumakovo, Chelyabinsk was mistakenly assumed to be Shumakovo, Kursk. Thus, Kusk has been removed from the map linked below.
The above comments indicate the H5N1 wild bird flu has moved to the western edge of Russia (see map). However, the major jump has not been widely reported. If true it seems that H5N1 will spread throughout Europe this fall. Some had speculated that the migration this fall would only affect more southern regions of Europe such as the Caspian and Black Seas, as well as the Mediterranean.
However, H5N1 has been reported in many species and several migratory paths overlap in Europe, so if some or most inflected flocks can transport and transmit H5N1, the widespread infections would be expected.
The path from Qinghai Lake to Xinjiang Province, to Chany Lake to the Ural Mountains demonstrates that migratory birds can easily and quickly transport and transmit H5N1 over long distance, raising the distinct possibility that soon H5N1 will be distributed worldwide.
Map
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