H5N1 Spreads in Rostov
Recombinomics Commentary
December 20, 2007
The third outbreak of bird flu has occurred in Russia's Rostov region, the regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax.
"Thirty-seven chickens and geese have died at a private farm in the village of Shosseiny. The farm had 50 birds, the remaining birds were destroyed," the department said.
Another bird flu outbreak occurred at a private farm in the village of Sladkaya Balka in the Rostov region.
The above comments describe two more H5N1 outbreaks in Rostov. These are in addition to the earlier outbreak at a large commercial facility at the end of last month, and the adjacent Krasnodar outbreak in September (see satellite map).
The sequence of H5N1 from a chicken in Krasnodar was the Uva Lake strain and was closely related to sequences from wild bird isolates from three locations in Germany. Recently, H5N1 was sequenced from a whooper swan in Krasnodar, and the HA sequence was an exact match with the chicken sequences. Full sequences were generated for all eight gene segments for both Krasnodar isolates. The sequences were 99.95% identical demonstrating that the poultry outbreak was due to another introduction of H5N1 into the region via wild birds.
In addition to these public sequences, descriptions of sequences from outbreaks in Kuwait, Czech Republic, France, England, and Germany are related to the Uva Lake strain, suggesting that recent outbreaks in Poland, Romania, Rostov, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan will also be related to the sub-clade that traces back to the massive wild bird outbreak at Uva Lake.
Although H5N1 in the Black Sea region in the fall has been reported in 2005 and 2006, reports of H5N1 in western Europe and the Middle East was not. The reports of H5N1 in Europe in the summer signaled an endemic H5N1 in wild birds, which would lead to more frequent detection in the fall, which has happened this year. The human cases in Pakistan raises concerns that the additional cases expected in the upcoming weeks will lead to human cases in countries which have never reported human H5N1 infections previously.
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