Deadly Bird Flu Virus Is Closing In On Europe

Deadly bird flu virus is closing in on Europe

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...736294,00.html

By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent
8/16/2005

AN OUTBREAK of avian flu among wild and domestic birds in Russia is spreading west and starting to approach Europe, public health officials said yesterday.

The first cases of bird flu have been reported in the Chelyabinsk region of Siberia, close to the Ural mountains that separate Europe from Asia, though scientists are not yet certain that the virus found there is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Roads were cordoned off and hundreds of chickens were slaughtered in Chelyabinsk yesterday to contain the apparent advance of avian flu, first reported in Siberia in July and being spread westward by migrating birds.

Gennadi Onishchenko, Russia’s top state epidemiologist, also predicted that the outbreak could spread to Russia’s most important agricultural areas of Krasnodar, Stavropol and Rostov in the south and then on to the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

In a letter to Russian regional health officials, Mr Onishchenko wrote: “An analysis of bird migration routes has shown that in autumn 2005 the H5N1 virus may be spread from Western Siberia to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Apart from Russia’s south, migrating birds may spread the virus to nearby countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, and Mediterranean countries) because bird migration routes from Siberia also go through those regions in autumn.”

The virus is being carried by flocks of birds, particularly wild geese and ducks, migrating from Siberia towards warmer regions. It has moved gradually west through the regions of Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Kurgan and Altai, as well as into Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Only in Altai, Novosibirsk and Omsk has the type of avian flu been confirmed as H5N1.

The latest region to be affected, Chelyabinsk, is the westernmost so far, about 600 miles (1,000km) from the first reported outbreak.

Roads leading to the infected village of Oktyabrskoye in Chelyabinsk, where 60 chickens have died, have been cordoned off to prevent the virus spreading. “All ill and infected birds are being slaughtered there,” the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

In other affected regions domestic birds were culled to block the virus that has killed more than 10,000 birds countrywide.

Officials said that wild birds, increasingly active this month as they prepare to migrate before winter, were to blame.

“Results of epizootic checks have shown that they (migrant birds) are the main source of infection,” Ria-Novosti news agency quoted an official with the Novosibirsk state consumer rights watchdog as saying.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has led to the death from infection and culling of tens of millions of birds across South-East Asia. It has also infected 112 people in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, causing 57 deaths. Russia has not yet experienced any cases of affected human beings.

Scientists are concerned that the H5N1 strain of avian flu could mutate so that it is passed easily from one person to another. If that were to happen, it would have the potential to trigger a lethal pandemic on the scale of the 1918-19 Spanish flu in which 20 million to 40 million people died.

UPDATE 5-Russia says bird flu may spread to Europe

http://today.reuters.com/business/ne...yID=nL15292005

By Maria Golovnina
Monday 15 August 2005, 10:24am EST

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Russia, which is scrambling to contain a bird flu outbreak in Siberia, warned the world on Monday that migrating birds may export the deadly virus to Europe and the Middle East in coming months.

The outbreak, previously confined to five remote areas of Siberia, appeared to be moving westward on Monday after the virus hit a major industrial region -- Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains which sever Asia from Europe.

And officials said the virus, which can kill humans, was likely to spread further.

"Apart from Russia's south, migrating birds may spread the virus to nearby countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Mediterranean countries) because bird migration routes from Siberia also go through those regions in autumn," said Russia's top state epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko.

Russia has been battling bird flu since mid-July. On Monday, officials condoned off roads near infected villages and killed hundreds of birds to contain the epidemic which has also hit neighbouring Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

It was unclear whether the virus found in Chelyabinsk was the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed more than 50 people in Asia since 2003.

Carried by flocks of wild birds migrating from Siberia to warmer regions, the virus has been steadily moving westward through Siberia's Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Kurgan and Altai.

Addressing regional health officials in a letter, Onishchenko said the disease could also hit Russia's major agricultural regions of Krasnodar, Stavropol and Rostov.

"The most likely cause of infection in the Siberian and Ural federal regions is the migration of birds from Southeast Asia and their contacts with domestic birds," stated the letter posted on the Web site of the state's consumer rights watchdog.

While listing a number of recommendations aimed at preventing humans from getting infected, he said bird migration in spring 2006 could further spread the virus in European Russia and bring more fowl viruses to Siberia from Southeast Asia.

FROM ASIA TO EUROPE
Although no people have so far been infected in Russia and Kazakhstan, there are fears the disease could spread to humans on the Eurasian landmass, possibly unleashing a global influenza pandemic.

Chelyabinsk, separated from European Russia by the Ural mountains and technically still in Siberia, is the westernmost region to have been struck so far.

It lies about 1,000 km (600 miles) both from Moscow and the region where the first flu outbreak was reported.

"All ill and infected birds are being slaughtered there," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Media reported that roads leading to the infected village of Oktyabrskoye in Chelyabinsk had been cordoned off to prevent the virus from spreading further.

In other affected regions, police boosted road checks, and 400 domestic birds were culled in Chelyabinsk alone to block the virus that has killed more than 10,000 birds countrywide.

There was no word on Monday on the situation in Kazakhstan and Mongolia where bird flu has also been registered along their sprawling borders with Russian Siberia.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Russia kills birds to halt advance of flu virus

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/16Aug2005_news27.php

8/16/2005

Moscow _ Russia cordoned off roads and slaughtered hundreds of birds yesterday to contain the advance of a bird flu epidemic towards western Europe.

The outbreak, previously confined to five remote areas of Siberia, has now struck a major industrial region _ Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains, which separate Asia from Europe.

``All ill and infected birds are being slaughtered there,'' the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

It was unclear whether the virus found in Chelyabinsk was the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed more than 50 people in Asia since 2003 and has hit Russia's Siberia as well as neighbouring Kazakhstan and Mongolia since mid-July.

Russia's top state epidemiologist said yesterday that a bird flu outbreak in Siberia could spread through Russia's key agricultural areas in the south and then on to the Middle East and Mediterranean countries.

``An analysis of bird migration routes has shown that in autumn 2005 ... the H5N1 virus may be spread from western Siberia to the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea,'' Gennady Onishchenko said in a letter to Russian regional health officials.

The letter was posted on the website of the state's consumer rights watchdog.

``Apart from Russia's south, migrating birds may spread the virus to nearby countries [Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Mediterranian countries] because bird migration routes from Siberia also go through those regions in autumn,'' he said in the letter.

Carried by flocks of wild birds migrating from Siberia to warmer regions, the virus has been steadily moving westwards through the regions of Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Omsk, Kurgan and Altai.

Chelyabinsk, separated from European Russia by the Ural mountains and technically still in Siberia, is the westernmost region to have been struck so far. It lies about 1,000km from the region where the first flu outbreak was reported.

Although no humans have yet been affected, there are fears the disease could spread to humans on the Eurasian landmass, possibly unleashing a global influenza pandemic.

Media reported that roads leading to the infected village of Oktyabrskoye in Chelyabinsk had been cordoned off to prevent the virus from spreading further.

In other affected regions, police boosted road checks, and 400 domestic birds were culled in Chelyabinsk alone to block the virus that has killed more than 10,000 birds countrywide.

Officials said wild birds, increasingly active in August as they prepare to migrate ahead of winter, were to blame.

Two suspected cases of anthrax found

Two Russian butchers in the southern Siberian region of Altai, a steppe area near Russia's border with China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, were suspected of having contracted anthrax yesterday after slaughtering an infected cow, local media said.

Itar-Tass news agency reported that the men had already sold contaminated meat to a client, possibly from the neighbouring region of Kemerovo, raising fears the disease could spread.REUTERS

China seals off farm to curb bird flu in Tibet

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK206013.htm

12 Aug 2005 04:23:57 GMT

BEIJING, Aug 12 (Reuters) - China has sealed off a farm in far-western Tibet and inoculated poultry within a five-km (three-mile) radius after discovering a strain of bird flu likely to be deadly to humans, state media said on Friday.

The world animal health body OIE said the virus was likely to be the H5N1 strain that has killed more than 50 people across Asia and lead to the deaths of some 140 million birds.

More than 2,600 chickens on the farm belonging to the Regional Institute of Animal Husbandry Science in a suburb of the Tibet capital, Lhasa, had been slaughtered, Xinhua news agency said, adding the compound had been quarantined.

"The region has adopted measures such as emergency inoculation of all fowl five km away from the venue of the suspected outbreak, tightened the monitoring of all breeding farms in Lhasa and launched a daily pandemic reporting mechanism," Xinhua said.

No other cases had been reported in the region, a spokesman with the regional bureau of agriculture and animal husbandry was quoted as saying.

China has already reported bird flu outbreaks in domestic birds in the Xinjiang and and in migratory birds in Qinghai province, both of which border Tibet.

The news of the Tibet outbreak came on the same day as confirmation that a bird flu outbreak in Kazakhstan was the deadly H5N1 strain and that the disease had extended its reach in Russian Siberia and spread to Mongolia

Germany stockpiles GlaxoSmithKline flu drug

http://www.pharmaceutical-business-r...3-17C4377BDB68

Germany has ordered 1.7 million doses of GlaxoSmithKline's influenza drug, Relenza, after researchers suggested that it can suppress the avian flu virus and should be stockpiled alongside Roche's Tamiflu, in case of a global pandemic of the virulent flu strain.

15 Aug 2005, 16:37 GMT - Relenza is only available in an inhaled form, raising concerns that this method of delivery might not be ideal in an emergency situation, and could lead to the drug being incorrectly administered to patients. However, it would now seem that the German government has put this concern to one side in a bid to accrue a stockpile that would be adequate in case of a bird flu pandemic.

Relenza and Tamiflu are both part of the same family of influenza medications that the researchers suggested would be effective in combating the avian form of the flu virus.

GlaxoSmithKline is currently the subject of a lawsuit being brought by Australian company, Biota, from whom GlaxoSmithKline licensed developmental and commercialization rights for the drug. The Australian company alleges that GSK failed to support the promotion of the drug.

Avian flu is currently circulating within poultry in Asian countries, and experts fear that the virus could mutate into a strain which could pass easily between humans.

Mexico controls minor bird flu outbreak

http://www.vnagency.com.vn/NewsA.asp...NEWS_ID=162509

08/11/2005

Mexico city (VNA) - A small bird flu outbreak in Mexican central state of Queretaro has been completely put under control, according to the state's Agricultural Development Service (SEDA).

SEDA's director Hector Lugo affirmed that after finding many fowls in 18 big farms infected with the bird flu virus, local veterinarians have culled five million fowls that have high risk of infection, separated 1.7 million chickens and vaccinated 12 million others in the nearby farms.

The director on August 10 confirmed that Queretaro has completely contained the disease that was caused by the common virus, which is not as dangerous as H5N1.

Another bird flu outbreak occurred in the country's northwestern state of Durango in March, but caused minor problems as the state had taken preventive measures to control the disease.-Enditem

poor little birdies.... just think of all the birds that are out there that don't have this thing they are killing now.