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More H5N1 Wild Bird Flu in Sverdlovsk In Russia?
Recombinomics Commentary
August 23, 2005
The new case of the loss of wild birds is fixed in Sverdlovsk region
The killed weft are discovered on the shore Of the shchelkunovskyyo lake in several kilometers from To syserti on the boundary with the Chelyabinsk province. According to the data of the veterinary supervision of region, one survived bird the veterinary surgeons transported to a study into Ekaterinburg, the correspondent reports.
The above machine translation of reported dead wild birds on the border between Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk provinces in western Siberia at the base of the Ural mountains provides more evidence of a western migration of H5N1 wild bird flu (see map). This migration from southern Siberia is being reinforced by birds migrating from northern Siberia, which may account for recent laboratory positive data from wild birds in Tomsk and Kanti-Mansi. The migration from the north was stated in the latest OIE report from Russia. The report cited August 20 as the migration date for birds from northern Siberia to begin flying to southern Siberia.
If the new cases are from birds migrating from the north, then the distribution of H5N1 in wild birds is more extensive than prior reports. These additional reservoirs of virus may signal a more widespread distribution of H5N1 which could include North America, Europe, and regions in Asia where there have not been prior reports of H5N1.
The explosion of H5N1 cases in 2005 is similar to the outbreak in 2004 in Asia. In many areas, H5N1 has become endemic, and the new H5N1 sequences in wild birds will increase the number of dual infections and recombinations, which could yield new and more dangerous versions of H5N1.
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