Bird flu could spread to European Russia - ministry

A strain of the bird flu virus dangerous to humans found in Siberia may spread to the heavily populated European part of Russia, where the main poultry farms are located, the Emergencies Ministry said on Wednesday.

"In autumn, some wild birds migrate from the northern part of Siberia to the Caspian and Black Sea regions," a ministry statement said.

"Risks of epidemic outbreaks in the industrial poultry breeding sector therefore increase and losses in zones of infection may be as high as 75 to 100 percent of the poultry population.

Human infection, especially among workers at poultry farms, cannot be ruled out."

The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday that all poultry farms in Russia have adopted a regime aimed at protecting them from the virus.

Russia consumes over 2 million tonnes of poultry meat a year and imports more than half of it - mainly from the United States, Brazil and the European Union.

Bird flu comes in different strains, such as H5 and H7, which have nine different subtypes. The H5N1 subtype is highly pathogenic and can be passed from birds to humans, although there have been no cases of human-to-human transmission.

More than 50 people have died in Asia from H5N1 since late 2003, raising fears it could mutate and trigger a global epidemic. The H5N1 strain has so far been officially confirmed in three Siberian regions of Novosibirsk, Altai and Tyumen.

SLAUGHTERING BIRDS

Tests have not revealed presence of the virus in another Siberian region, Omsk, where 350 head of domestic poultry and 123 wild birds died, the ministry said.

On Tuesday Novosibirsk began slaughtering birds in 13 locations where the virus had been discovered, a spokesman for the regional administration said on Wednesday.

"Slaughtered poultry from 68 households was put in plastic bags together with disinfectant and incinerated in specially prepared pits located at a distance from settlements," he said.

The spokesman said the slaughtering may be finished in a week to 10 days.

The ministry said the virus had so far killed 2,707 domestic birds in the Novosibirsk region and another 300 in Altai, where no new deaths among poultry were registered on Tuesday.

"The situation has stabilized in the Tyumen region. Around 100 birds had died at small private farms so far and no new cases have been registered in the last 24 hours," Sergey Palevich, deputy head of the Tyumen veterinary inspectorate, told Reuters.

So far no cases of humans being infected with bird flu had been registered.