Kazakhs unsure if local bird flu threatens humans

By Raushan Nurshayeva

ASTANA (Reuters) – Kazakhstan confirmed on Thursday an
outbreak of bird flu in the north of the country but said
scientists needed more time to discover whether the virus was
dangerous to humans.

Some 400 geese died at a poultry farm in the village of
Golubovka in the Pavlodar region in late July. Veterinary
officials say the virus is avian influenza, but have yet to
define the exact type.

“Results of the tests being carried out are due by August
10 and then it will be clear if it is dangerous to humans or
not,” Kasym Mukanov, deputy head of the Agriculture Ministry’s
veterinary department, told a news conference.

“So far we have not detected any cases of the disease
transmitted to humans in this village,” he said. Foreign
scientists including some from Israel were assisting in testing
the virus.

Across the border in Russia, a quarantine has been imposed
in the Novosibirsk region after an outbreak of bird flu was
found to be of the H5N1 type dangerous to humans.

Avian influenza is split into strains such as H5 and H7,
which in turn have nine different sub-groups.

H5N1 is highly pathogenic and can be passed from birds to
humans, although there have been no known cases of human to
human transmission.

The Kazakh strain has been defined as H5 but the sub-type
is not known.

In Moscow, the emergencies ministry said Russia had culled
4,884 head of domestic poultry in Siberian regions neighboring
Kazakhstan in the last few days to prevent the virus spreading.

Kazakhstan imports insignificant amounts of poultry from
Russia. The United States is the main supplier of poultry,
mainly chicken.

Mukanov said ta total of 2,350 geese and 450 ducks had been
destroyed to contain the spread of bird flu in Kazakhstan. No
outbreaks of the disease had been reported in other regions of
the vast Central Asian nation.

A 20-year-old man from Golubovka in hospital with symptoms
similar to those of bird flu was in fact suffering from
advanced pneumonia, he said.

(Additional reporting by Aleksandras Budrys in Moscow)