| Bird flu is conquering Europe and approaching Moscow Bird flu, which spread from China to Siberia in August and almost disappeared in the fall, unexpectedly manifested itself near the borders of the capital region. Despite the fact that the presence of the H5N1 strain has not yet been laboratory confirmed, veterinarians have serious concerns that this particular virus recently became the cause of the mass death of poultry in the Tula region. If the veterinarians’ assumptions are confirmed, all poultry farms in the Moscow region will be forced to switch to a special regime.
According to local administration reports, from October 14 to 17, 2005, on the farms of seven residents of the village of Yandovka, Efremovsky district, Tula region, 247 chickens, geese and ducks died. According to preliminary data, the cause of death was an acute viral disease. The carcasses of the dead birds were destroyed, but to establish a final diagnosis, tissue samples were urgently sent for research to the city of Yuryevets, Vladimir Region, where the Animal Protection Research Institute is located. The authorities are not yet talking about quarantine, but the head of the local municipality immediately introduced a restriction on the export of chicken and other poultry products from Yandovka. Just in case, there is even a traffic police post on the road.
At the same time, sanitary authorities believe that there is no reason to panic yet. The head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Russia Gennady Onishchenko said yesterday that he does not have accurate information about the death of poultry specifically from influenza. “There is no confirmation of this,” he said, calling to wait for the results of the examination in the Tula region. True, Mr. Onishchenko indirectly confirmed fears that the emergence of the virus not in the Siberian outback, but in a densely populated area, almost next to the Russian capital, is apparently a matter of time. “We anticipate with great concern the reintroduction of the avian influenza virus into the country,” he said.
But the greatest concern among doctors is still not the capital region, but Siberia, where birds from Southeast Asia, Africa and America return in the spring. As the chief sanitary doctor specified, “we will especially monitor the situation in the Tyumen, Novosibirsk regions and Altai Territory, where these migratory birds have been nesting for many millennia.” Also, Mr. Onishchenko did not exclude the possibility of transmission of the bird flu virus to humans. Despite the fact that this probability is very low, and the forecast for this fall is favorable, Mr. Onishchenko called for “preparing for the worst.” Especially now, with the onset of the traditional “flu” season. “When two influenza viruses meet in the human body, the likelihood of mutation of the avian influenza virus increases dramatically,” he explained.
Gennady Onishchenko strongly recommended that Russians get vaccinated against the common flu just in case. According to him, in 2006, 20-23 million doses of the vaccine will be purchased from the federal budget, which will be used to vaccinate children, the elderly and health workers. The chief sanitary doctor advises the rest to get vaccinated at their own expense or at the expense of the company.
There is no vaccine against bird flu yet. According to the head of Rospotrebnadzor, several Russian research centers are currently developing it based on a strain isolated from a person, which was sent to Russian immunologists by British colleagues. As for excluding chicken dishes from the diet as a means of prevention, the chief sanitary doctor of Russia reassured Muscovites: according to him, poultry meat sold in markets “does not pose a threat, since it is delivered from regions where there is no bird flu.”
However, sales of chicken meat in Moscow and the Moscow region may still decline, as was the case last summer in the regions where the virus was detected. That the owners of poultry farms are in for a difficult period is confirmed by the situation in Europe, where, due to the threat of bird flu, countries one after another are refusing to export poultry from “dubious” countries. Panic in the market was caused by information that the dangerous H5N1 virus entered Europe in the fall along with wild birds, for which there are no borders or quarantines. Recently, samples taken from a turkey on the Greek island of Inousses tested positive for the virus. The virus was also found in a wild swan near the Romanian village of Rosetti, which is located ten kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Personal vehicles are inspected at the Ukrainian borders to prevent bird smuggling. The presence of the strain has also been recorded in Turkey.
As a result, already in France, which is separated from Romania and Greece by thousands of kilometers, chicken consumption has fallen by 10%. And, for example, the Bavarian authorities unilaterally, without waiting for the decisions of other German states, until December 15 - the end of autumn migration - introduce house arrest for poultry in order to avoid its contacts with wild counterparts. From Monday, Bavaria banned bird markets and also canceled bird shows.
Yesterday, the emergence of the bird flu virus near European borders was discussed in Luxembourg at an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union member countries. The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Marcos Kyprianou, reported on the situation. To begin with, the European Commission introduced a ban on the import of live poultry from Turkey and Romania and sent virological experts there. In addition, outbreaks of the disease have also been registered in Bulgaria and Greece. Experts do not rule out that Italy will soon join the virus-carrying countries in the coming days. Therefore, the European Commission called on EU countries to prepare for a possible pandemic and create the necessary stocks of antiviral drugs. Irina BELASHEVA |
|
