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Russia Has Spent R110m on Avian Flu Measures - Expert

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

Text of report by Russian news agency RIA

Moscow, 19 October: By October, the Russian government had spent R110m on eliminating the consequences of avian flu in Russian regions, the deputy director of the Vektor state scientific centre of virology and biotechnology, Sergey Netesov, has said.

The money was spent, for example, on preventive measures among the population in the regions, including vaccination, on the destruction of birds and making compensation payments to those residents whose poultry was destroyed, Netesov said at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday [19 October].

The Russian Agriculture Ministry reported earlier that 113,000 birds had been destroyed in Russia as a result of the spread of avian flu. According to Rospotrebnadzor [Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection], the avian flu virus has been detected in eight regions of Russia. About 100,000 hens, ducks and other types of poultry, kept by local residents, were destroyed in Novosibirsk Region alone to suppress the outbreak of infection.

"There is a trend towards the disappearance of the bird flu epizootic. The area of the spread of the epizootic still comprises Altay Territory and Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Tyumen and Omsk regions," Rospotrebnadzor notes.

Netesov recalled that several Russian medical institutes are currently creating vaccines against avian flu to protect people and animals.

"The expediency of using a vaccine on animals has not yet been resolved. It is experts that will take a decision on this issue," he said.

Speaking of a vaccine to protect humans, Netesov noted that the flu institute in St Petersburg "is currently closer than anyone else to creating it".

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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