H5N1 kills poultry in Moscow area

"The pathogenicity of this virus for people has not been confirmed. Vets have detected it, they confirm it is the H5N1 strain," Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief sanitary expert and head of a consumer watchdog, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying on Friday.

Last month Russia recorded its first cases this year of the H5N1 strain in dead domestic birds, detected in the southern Krasnodar region.

Russia recorded more than 90 cases of bird flu last year. Most were in southern regions, particularly the North Caucasus area that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan. Several cases were also found in the Siberian regions of Novosibirsk and Omsk.

The virus was detected in a house in the Pavlovsky settlement of the Domodedovo area near Moscow. The house was being disinfected, Onishchenko said.

Workers on two farms near Moscow have been taken to hospital suspected of having the bird flu, Interfax agency cited the acting governor of the Moscow region, Alexei Pantelyeyev, as saying. He added that a few dozen birds had been culled.

Health experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from human to human, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. The virus has killed 167 people worldwide since 2003, mainly in Asia.

No human cases have been recorded in Russia. Five people have died from eight cases in neighbouring Azerbaijan. Reuters