# 503
Since Wednesday of last week, we've barely heard a word out of Russia regarding their bird flu outbreak. Today, we get these two short announcements.
Bird flu spreading in Central Russia - emergencies ministry
11:47
|
26/ 02/ 2007
MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - Recent cases of avian flu in dead poultry have been registered in the Russian capital and two adjacent regions, the emergencies ministry said Monday.
"Since February 10, dead poultry have been found in Moscow, eight districts of the Moscow Region and a district in the Kaluga Region," the ministry said. "Traces of the deadly H5N1 virus have been confirmed at private farms at 10 locations in these areas."
No cases of humans infected with the virus have been registered so far and emergency measures have been taken to stop the spread of the disease.
"Overall, 2,146 birds have been culled," a ministry's spokesperson said.
No new bird flu cases in Moscow region - official
MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - There were no new bird flu cases in the Moscow region last weekend, Federal Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service spokesman Alexei Alexeyenko told Interfax.
"Nothing has changed. The number of farmsteads in the Moscow region where laboratory tests confirm H5N1 deaths remains at nine," he said.
Bird deaths occurred in the Domodedovo, Odintsovo, Podolsk, Naro- Fominsk, Taldom, Volokolamsk, Ramenskoye and Dmitrov regions. Birds sold at the Moscow market (the source of the infection) also appeared to have flu.
The infection is limited, the death toll is insignificant, and bird flu will not spread throughout the Moscow region, he said. The quarantine will last for no less than 21 days.
Birds, that died recently in the Kaluga region, did not have flu, Alexeyev said.
The tone of these articles appear a bit different. In the first, the headline states that bird flu is spreading. In the second, it is contained.
After the initial reports, Russian officials were quick to state that the outbreak had been contained to seven areas in and around Moscow.
Within hours they retracted that statement, and admitted additional outbreaks had occurred around Moscow and a `southern region' as well.
Since then, we've seen very little, except a statement that the outbreaks would be over `in two weeks'. Even the Russian tabloid papers have gone quiet.
Whether this information slowdown is due to a policy decision, or simply a lack of news, is impossible to tell. But one always gets a bit suspicious when the flow of news is abruptly cut off.
