Bird Flu Center

Measures to counteract the highly pathogenic bird flu virus have been stepped up in Eastern Russia, with the fall migration of waterfowl creating the risk of another outbreak of the virus in new areas. Health workers are collecting 1,100 blood samples from migratory and domestic birds from the Primorye Territory in a program that was started in July this year. No avian influenza case has been reported yet, as domestic birds were vaccinated against the disease in the spring. Five Siberian and 11 southern regions of Russia were affected by the disease this year, with 1.5 million birds dying or falling ill because of this. However, the outbreaks were eradicated and all quarantine restrictions were lifted in August. Siberia is in the vicinity of Asian countries that have been heavily affected by the disease. Local administration has opened a center to fight the disease and allocated funds to buy medicines for a large scale vaccination campaign, as well as setting up mobile veterinary teams.