# 476
While hardly surprising, it is now official. The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has been determined to be the culprit in the Moscow bird flu poultry deaths.
Russia confirms bird flu outbreak caused by H5N1
Mon 19 Feb 2007 8:28:53 GMT
MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Russian health officials confirmed on Monday that a bird flu outbreak near Moscow was caused by the dangerous H5N1 strain that can infect humans.
Poultry farms around the capital were under tight control after animal and plant health watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said at the end of last week that several birds died from the virus in villages around Moscow.
"Laboratory tests confirmed that H5N1 bird flu found in five regions around Moscow was highly pathogenic and potentially dangerous for humans, and is probably related to the Asian type of the virus," Nikolai Vlasov, a senior Rosselkhoznadzor official, told Itar-Tass news agency.
