[A-List] Siberian poultry farm is quarantined

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<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/20/AR2005082001152.html>

Bird Flu Suspected at Big Russian Farm
Presence of Deadly Virus, if Verified, Would Be the Nation's Biggest Outbreak

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 21, 2005; A15

MOSCOW, Aug. 20 -- Russian officials have quarantined a large poultry
farm in Siberia because of a suspected outbreak of bird flu, news
reports said Saturday. If confirmed, it would be the first major
occurrence of the lethal virus among birds in Russia, and
international health officials expressed concern that the disease had
spread closer to Western Europe.

About 142,000 birds are being monitored at a commercial farm in the
Omsk region of Siberia, 1,400 miles east of Moscow, the Russian news
agency Interfax reported, quoting a federal agency that tracks the
disease. The presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza was
reported last month in Siberia, but only among wild birds and
free-range chickens on small family farms.

Avian influenza has killed at least 61 people in Vietnam, Thailand and
Cambodia since early last year, mostly farmers and poultry workers in
close contact with the animals. Millions of birds have been
slaughtered in Asia in an attempt to control the disease.

The World Health Organization has warned that the viral strain
affecting chickens, ducks and wild fowl could develop into a form that
spreads easily among humans, exposing millions of people to the
disease. The exact means of transmission is unclear, and it is not
conclusively known whether the disease can be contracted from eating
infected poultry.

WHO reported Thursday that the spread of the H5N1 strain in Russia "is
of concern because it creates further opportunities for human
exposure."

Russian officials said there have been no human infections since the
virus was detected last month.

The federal consumers' rights and welfare agency said in a statement
that it had "mapped out and passed on to the regions a package of
sanitary and anti-epidemic measures" to prevent bird flu deaths.

Russia has also stepped up health inspections of chickens and other
birds in the past month.

There are about 233 million head of poultry in commercial enterprises
in Russia, according to the Russian Poultry Union. The spread of the
disease into the industry would be economically devastating for the
country and could affect neighboring countries, including those of the
European Union.

International officials fear that, in September, migrating birds
escaping the Russian winter might carry avian influenza across the
Black Sea and into southeastern Europe and North Africa. Countries in
the region and in the European Union have begun banning the
importation of feathers and live birds from Russia.

"We are preparing for a worst-case scenario," said Renate Kunast,
Germany's consumer protection minister, announcing emergency
restrictions this month on poultry kept in the open. Free-range
chicken is popular in Germany.

The Netherlands had already ordered poultry farmers to move their
operations indoors to reduce the risk of exposure to wild birds and to
help contain any outbreak. The British government is sending doctors
50-page pamphlets with information on dealing with a human outbreak,
the Financial Times reported.

WHO, meanwhile, is negotiating with the Swiss pharmaceutical firm
Roche for a donation of 3 million doses of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug
effective against bird flu. WHO and other health organizations have
expressed concern that the global capacity to manufacture vaccines in
the event of a pandemic might be insufficient.

Russian officials said that if the presence of bird flu were confirmed
at the Omsk farm, all the poultry there would be killed, according to
Interfax.

About 11,000 birds have died of the disease in Russia, and an
additional 127,000 have been slaughtered on small farms, officials
said. Up to 40 Russian villages have been hit by bird flu, and 78 are
under watch, according to the federal veterinarian and plant health
oversight service. But some of the measures introduced in the European
Union, such as moving poultry indoors, are difficult to impose on
Russia's small family plots.

As recently as Thursday, the Russian poultry industry, in an effort to
reassure consumers, was stressing that the outbreak had not affected
any birds on commercial farms.

"All measures were taken in advance so that bird flu would not affect
our enterprises, and the situation is being permanently monitored,"
Vyacheslav Lukyanov, deputy general director of the Russian Poultry
Union, told Interfax.

A team from the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization was expected
to visit Russia soon to advise officials on combating the outbreak.