Society

13:18, 16.04.2008 | Far East Russia

There is no bird flu danger in the Primorye territory, first deputy head of the territorial emergency situations commission Oleg Melnikov told a Tuesday press conference in Vladivostok.

“The inoculation of domestic birds goes on, and it is prohibited to shoot wild waterfowl. The village of Vozdvizhenka is still under quarantine, and no new outbreaks of the disease have been registered,” he said.

“Local residents should not fear the possible spread of this ailment,” the official said. Anatoly Kirsanov, whose birds died of flu, will be discharged from hospital on April 16. His test results are good, but he will stay under medical surveillance for a while.

The territory has taken bird flu precautions. More than 60 veterinarians are inoculating domestic birds around Vozdvizhenka, where chickens and geese died late last week. Inoculations have been given to over 350,000 domestic birds.

A number of migrant birds have been shot down for tests; the test results are negative. It appeared that a wild goose shot by a Vozdvizhenka resident on April 8 was the disease carrier. The hunter ate the goose and threw out the goose’s guts. Domestic birds consumed the waste and died several days later. The Primorye veterinarian laboratory of the Federal Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service found the bird flu virus AH5, and the national lab confirmed the diagnosis.

That was the first bird flu case in the Russian Far East. Wild birds migrate from Southeast Asia to their nesting areas in the north through the Primorye territory.

-ITAR-TAAS