Russian Bird Flu Can Infect Humans

Russian authorities confirmed on August 2 that the same bird flu subtype that has killed at least 50 people in Asia has been found in three regions of Siberia – Novosibirsk, Altai and Tyumen. Initially local health officials believed that the virus, first found there two weeks ago, was the less virulent H5N2 bird flu variant. It is now clear that it is H5N1, which is highly contagious in animals and has proved deadly to humans.

The Siberian H5N1 is believed by experts to have arrived with birds migrating from infected areas in Asia.

"The [Siberian] virus has been sequenced and its Southeast Asian origin has been confirmed," said a press release from Russia's State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, VECTOR.

Quarantine was imposed in Novosibirsk last week, and now 65,000 domestic chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys will be culled across 13 settlements in an effort to stem the spread of the outbreak, said Novosibirsk Deputy Governor Viktor Gergert, according to Reuters. Only quarantines have so far been imposed in the other regions.

In the Pavlodar region of neighbouring Kazakhstan, a similar outbreak killed wild birds and 600 domestic geese between July 20 and 30. A cull there is already underway.

A senior official from the Russian Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection Service is speculating that this bird flu outbreak originated in China. "We have been in contact with the Kazakhs. The probability that they have the same type of virus is very high, as some birds fly to Russia from China through Kazakhstan. But it will take some time to have it confirmed," the official who requested anonymity told Reuters. According to The China Post, Kazakh officials deny that their strain is H5N1.

Russian poultry farms are now on high alert, as an August 3 Emergency Ministry statement expressed concern that migrating birds would bring the disease to western Russia.

"Risks of epidemic outbreaks in the industrial poultry breeding sector therefore increase and losses in zones of infection may be as high as 75 to 100 percent of the poultry population. Human infection, especially among workers at poultry farms, cannot be ruled out," the Ministry added.

If H5N1 reaches western Russia, it may keep going.

"There is also a possibility that bird flu could spread to the European Union as (infected) wild birds from China may have been in contact in Russia with birds that will fly on to the Netherlands, France and elsewhere," the unnamed official said. "North America is not safe either, as some birds from Russia fly there, too."

While no human cases of the bird flu have been reported in Russia so far, experts believe that the H5N1 virus will eventually cause a global flu pandemic in humans, potentially killing millions worldwide.