Mass bird deaths found in European Russian region

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian health workers have found mass
bird deaths in a region to the west of the Ural mountains in
what could become the first case of the deadly bird flu virus
spreading to Europe, officials said on Wednesday.

Russia has fought to contain a bird flu outbreak since
mid-July when the first case of the disease — which can also
kill humans — was registered in Siberia and later in
neighbouring Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

The Russian state health watchdog, in a statement posted on
its Web site, said the bird deaths occurred on a farm in the
Caspian region of Kalmykia — 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from the
region where Russia’s first flu outbreak was reported.

It was unclear whether bird flu had caused those deaths.

“This case is being investigated,” the Federal Consumers’
Rights and Welfare Watchdog said, adding no cases among humans
had been confirmed in Russia.

Kalmykia is 1,800 km south of Moscow and is the only
Buddhist region in Europe.

The epidemic, officially identified in six Siberian
regions, has yet to be confirmed on the western side of the
Ural mountains separating Asia from Europe.

Officials fear migrating birds could export it to Western
Europe, Africa and the Middle East over coming months.

Separately, Interfax news agency reported from the
industrial region of Chelyabinsk, where officials confirmed the
first case of the deadly H5N1 strain this week, that the virus
had struck another village in the region — Barsuchye.

In Kazakhstan, the Emergencies Ministry said the death of
more than 120 birds in a northern village was due to avian
influenza, the sixth location in the country where a bird flu
outbreak has been recorded.

Although no humans have been infected in the Kazakh and
Russian outbreaks, the H5N1 subtype of bird flu has killed more
than 50 people in Asia since 2003.

The prospect of its spreading has prompted warnings that
the virus might mutate in humans and unleash a global influenza
pandemic that could kill millions.

A message from the U.S. embassy to Americans in Kazakhstan
this week said the State Department was stockpiling an
anti-viral medication, Tamiflu, to treat U.S. government
employees and their families at its embassies in southeast
Asia.