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Suspected Russia bird flu seen no threat to humans

Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 06:45 CDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A disease discovered in poultry in Russia and suspected to be the country's first case of bird flu is unlikely to pose a threat to humans, a senior Health Ministry official said on Friday.

"The disease was discovered some 10 days ago and people who have since come into contact with the affected birds have shown no symptoms of illness. And the flu shows itself in one or two days," said Galina Lazikova, deputy chief epidemiologist.

The Paris-based world animal health body OIE said the Russian authorities had notified a suspected outbreak of bird flu in Siberia, but more tests were needed. The OIE said the Russian report said some clinical signs indicated the outbreak was a type of avian influenza, although some details -- no species specificity and the pattern of spreading -- were not typical of the disease.

It said the first signs of a disease were found in poultry in five villages in Novosibirsk on July 15 and significant mortality detected by July 18. By July 20, more than 350 birds of various species (geese, ducks, turkeys, chickens) had died.

The Russian report said pathological material had been sent for laboratory analysis and the results expected on July 23.

On Thursday the Russian Emergencies Ministry reported that bird flu, strains of which can spread to people and can be fatal, had been detected in poultry in a village in Siberia, but the country's chief veterinarian could not confirm the news.

"The reason behind the accident could be bad water, feed poisoning, Newcastle disease or bird flu. More investigation is needed," Sergei Dankvert, chief animal and plant safety officer, told Reuters on Thursday.

The head of the Veterinary Department of the Novosibirsk regional administration, Muhamed Amirokov, told Reuters on Friday specimens of dead birds were being tested by several laboratories in the region and outside it, and results could be expected in 3-4 days.

"As of today we have no proof that we have bird flu. What we have is a disease of unknown origin. And we keep the situation under observation," Amirokov said.

He said no quarantine had been imposed in the region, although some "standard restrictive measures had been adopted." He declined to give details.

The bird flu virus is split into strains such as H5 and H7. Both of these have the potential to be high or low pathogenic.

Of the H5 strain, there are potentially nine different subtypes such as H5N1, H5N2 and H5N3. The deadly strain if the virus that has struck Asia recently is the high pathogenic H5N1 type that can be transmitted to humans.

Lazikova said preliminary tests had shown that birds might have one of the H5 type strains not dangerous to humans.

Russia does not produce enough poultry for domestic needs and imports over a million tonnes of poultry meat annually, mainly from the United States, the European Union and Brazil.

(Additional reporting by David Evans in Paris)

Source: REUTERS

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