H5N1 Migrates to Rostov Russia
Recombinomics Commentary
December 12, 2007
About 500,000 chickens will be culled at a poultry farm in southern Russia, where 35,000 birds have died from bird flu since late November, a source in the local emergencies service said on Wednesday.
The birds started dying on November 29, and preliminary analysis showed traces of the lethal H5N1 virus
The Krasnodar Territory, which is on the route taken by migrating birds in winter, was hit by the H5N1 strain in September, when a total of 230,000 birds were culled at the Lebyazhye-Chepiginskoye poultry farm.
The above comments describe the spread of H5N1 to Rostov. As noted above, there was a recent outbreak in adjacent Krasnodar. Full sequences from a chicken and whooper swan in the area have been published. The two HA sequences are identical, and the identity of the eight gene segments is above 99.95%. The HA and NA sequences are closely related to H5N1 from three wild bird outbreaks in Germany this summer, and reports indicate the sequences are also closely related to outbreaks in Kuwait, Czech Republic, France, and England. Therefore, it is likely that similar sequences will be found in recent outbreaks in Romania and Poland, as well as the Rostov outbreak.
These sequences trace back to a wild bird outbreak in Mongolia during the summer of 2006. These sequences likely circulated in Europe undetected until the summer of 2007, when confirmed wild bird cases were reported in Germany, France, and the Czech Republic.
These data indicate H5N1 is now endemic in wild birds in Europe, but largely circulates below the detection limits of surveillance programs. These programs rare detect H5N1 in live birds, including areas with H5N1 in dead or dying wild birds and domestic poultry.
The outbreaks over the summer suggest the number of farms reporting H5N1 infection in Europe will be higher than usual. The Rostov outbreaks adds to the domestic poultry outbreaks, which have been reported in the Czech Republic, Germany, Krasnodar, England, Romania and Poland.
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