H5N1 Re-emerges in Krasnodar
Recombinomics Commentary
September 4, 2007
Russia on Tuesday reported its third outbreak this year of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu after 410 birds died on a poultry farm in the country's south.
Lebyazhye-Chepiginskoye farm, in the same region where the virus was detected in dead domestic birds in January.
Russia's second outbreak of 2007 occurred in February, when several cases in towns around Moscow were traced to the capital's best-known pet market.
The re-emergence of H5N1 in Krasnodar is not a surprise. As noted above, infections in Krasnordar were reported in early 2007 as well as 2006. The 2007 sequences had some similarity with the outbreaks near Moscow, but were distinct. Included in the differences was NA G743A, which was present in the Moscow isolates, as well as multiple 2007 isolates in Egypt in Ghana, but absent in the Krasnodar isolates.
H5N1 has become endemic in the region, as seen in the widespread outbreaks in wild birds in Germany, France, and the Czech Republic, leading to more frequent detections. Wild bird migration from Siberia increases likelihood of more H5N1 infections at this time of the year in Krasnodar. In 2005, H5N1 was reported in the Volga Delta as early as August.
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