H5N1 bird flu came to Russia from Azerbaijan, Russian official stated

Veterinary officials traced all five outbreaks, in separate villages around Moscow, to birds bought in the past two weeks at the capital's Sadovod market, commonly known as "Ptichka" ("Birdie"), where masked officials guarded empty stalls.

Laboratory tests confirmed that the H5N1 bird flu present in all five cases was highly pathogenic and potentially dangerous to humans, said Nikolai Vlasov, head of veterinary surveillance at Russia's animal and plant health watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor.

"It is probably related to the Asian type of the virus," he told Reuters.

The outbreak is Russia's second this year and the first ever recorded close to the capital. The H5N1 strain killed poultry in three settlements in the southern region of Krasnodar last month.

No human cases of bird flu have been recorded in Russia.

The virus has killed 167 people worldwide since 2003, mostly in Asia and in cases where the victims had been in direct contact with infected birds. A total 273 cases have been recorded in humans.

Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from human to human, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. Five people have died from eight cases in neighbouring Azerbaijan.

Vlasov said the virus was probably brought to Moscow by migrating birds from the Caucasus or the Middle East.

"Preliminary data show the virus could have come from the region around Azerbaijan or Iran," the health official said.

Controls were in place limiting movement to and from the five villages where bird flu had been found since Friday, in the Taldom, Domodedovo, Podolsk, Naro-Fominsk and Odintsovo districts, and the Sadovod market would remain closed until further checks had been carried out, he said.

The Moscow Region prosecutor said in a statement that a criminal investigation was under way to determine whether veterinary regulations had been breached at the market, and confirmed that residents of the five affected villages had bought birds at the market since Feb. 5.

Tight controls were also in place at other poultry farms around Moscow, though the region's largest poultry producer has said these would not affect operations.

"We always have strict controls in place," Vadim Kamashev, deputy general director of Mosselprom, told Reuters on Saturday. "In principle, we hope strict measures will limit uncontrolled poultry breeding," he said.

The World Animal Health Organisation, which monitors the global bird flu situation, has so far this year received a report from Russia only on the bird flu outbreak in Krasnodar in January, data published on its Web site on Monday showed.

Russia recorded more than 90 bird flu cases in chickens and other birds last year, mostly in the North Caucasus region that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan, and in Siberia's Novosibirsk and Omsk regions. Reuters