Bird flu suspected in Moscow suburbs

Local officials and scientists are gearing up with preventive and monitoring efforts after cases of avian flu were reported over the weekend from seven suburbs within 30 miles of the Russian capital.

Authorities confirmed that the H5N1 strain that is linked to the flu could have moved from the city’s main poultry market. The police have moved into the market searching vehicles for outgoing poultry and disinfecting tires.

Residents who had complained of the illness had bought poultry from the market from the start of this month. Following the outbreak authorities have put on high alert a monitoring process covering over 5200 residents including the 20-odd who were directly handling poultry. Plans are afoot to vaccinate over one million birds.

Officials have broadcast appeals over the television and radio asking people not to panic.

Although the flu seems to stick to the pattern of westward movement, epidemiologists are unable to confirm whether the current outbreak is purely attributable to migratory birds or those that were trucked from the south.

Since January this year, bird flu has been reported in areas on the edge of the Black Sea including in Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia. It looked like a repeat of the flu being carried by migratory birds just as it was in the winter of 2005. In 2006 too, scientists concluded that the cases reported from Romania and Turkey could have been the aftermath of die-offs in southwest China. In February, Italy, France and Germany were gripped by multiple outbreaks when the migratory birds escaping the unusually cold weather could have carried the virus.

But the present outbreak in Moscow patterns similar to that in Hungary and Britain where infected raw turkey brought from plants owned by the same company caused the virus spread. Therefore, officials are keeping a close watch on commercial transportation of poultry into as well as out of Moscow.

Isolated cases of avian flu have also been reported from some parts of Asia, like Jordan, Myanmar, Pakistan and Laos. The zoo in Islamabad was shut down for disinfection after H5N1 strain was found in peacocks and geese.