Bird flu detected in Ukraine

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Bird flu detected in Ukraine
Sat Dec 3, 2005 12:52 PM GMT

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...01_YUE268247_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-UKRAINE.xml

By Pavel Polityuk

KIEV (Reuters) - A strain of bird flu that may be the type dangerous to humans has been detected among domestic fowl that died suddenly in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, the Agriculture Ministry said on Saturday.

Officials were holding an emergency meeting and measures had been taken in affected areas to contain the virus.

"Initial investigation shows this is virus group A (H5)," a ministry spokesman said by telephone. "It is possible that this virus is dangerous for humans."

The spokesman said additional studies were being carried out "to enable us to draw final conclusions. Samples are being sent to a reference laboratory in Britain."

A commission tackling the outbreak was holding an emergency meeting, attended by Farm Minister Olekesander Baranivsky, law enforcement bodies and other officials. The minister, who has toured the region, was to brief journalists later in the day.

His ministry said the virus had been detected in three districts of the peninsula, which juts out into the Black Sea.

Authorities in Crimea said a quarantine had been imposed on five villages and local authorities were destroying birds, but only at rural homes where the virus had been found.

Ukraine had earlier found no cases of bird flu, though the deadly H5N1 virus has been discovered in neighboring Romania and Russia.

The H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia where it has killed almost 70 people since 2003 and led to the slaughter of millions of domestic birds.

Many scientists fear H5N1 could kill millions of people if it mutates into a form that passes easily among humans. But so far, there is no sign the virus has changed in this way and no human cases have been found outside Asia.

Ukraine's announcement on Saturday followed the discovery of a total of 1,621 birds that died suddenly in Crimea and the dispatch of a team of experts to investigate.

Veterinarians in Crimea had warned of a high probability of bird flu occurring in the peninsula as it is a regular stopping point of migratory birds heading south for the winter.

Ukrainian officials had in recent weeks analyzed thousands of domestic and wild birds but detected no bird flu.

All hunting of birds had been halted and residents were told to keep their stocks indoors to prevent contact with wild birds.

Romania on Friday discovered new cases of bird flu in the Danube Delta it shares with Ukraine and samples were being sent to Britain to determine whether the infected birds had the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain.

Romania became the first country in mainland Europe to detect the H5N1 virus in two villages in the delta.

Bird flu, including the H5N1 strain, has also been found in several regions of Russia, Ukraine's northern neighbor.
 
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Ukraine Records First Case of Bird Flu

Ukraine Records First Case of Bird Flu

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/94-12032005-579073.html

By NATASHA LISOVA
The Associated Press

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine recorded its first bird flu outbreak on Saturday, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency in four Crimean villages where more than 1,600 chickens and geese have died of the disease.

Dead birds found dead over the past two months in the Black Sea peninsula tested positive for the H5 subtype, officials said. Bird flu had already been detected in neighboring Romania nearly two months ago, and Ukrainian officials scrambled to reassure this nation of 47 million that they were well-prepared.

Ukrainians, meanwhile, began debating whether to stop buying poultry - the only meat many in this poor nation can afford.

"I don't see any reason for panic, the situation is under control," Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Baranivsky told reporters in Kiev after announcing a two-mile quarantine around the four villages.

Samples were sent to laboratories in Italy and Britain for further tests to determine whether the disease could be the deadly H5N1 strain, which is being monitored for fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transferable among humans. The results are expected by Thursday, Baranivsky said.

Worldwide attention is focused on the H5N1 strain, which has devastated poultry stocks in Asia and killed at least 69 people in the region since 2003.

Domestic fowl began dying in Ukraine's Crimean region on Oct. 18, but the deaths increased significantly last month, rising to 1,621. Positive test results for the H5 strain came back Saturday, Baranivsky said.

He attributed the bird flu to contact between migratory birds and domestic fowl at the Crimea's Lake Savash. The peninsula had been seen as an area of special concern for authorities because it is a landing spot for many migratory birds.

Under the state-of-emergency ordered by President Viktor Yushchenko, no one will be allowed to enter or leave the quarantine, and experts will visit every home to inform residents to count flocks. Officials also prohibited all sales of domestic fowl and poultry products in the Crimea.


All birds - even if healthy - will be slaughtered starting Sunday and their carcasses burned. Residents will be compensated as much as $2 for each culled bird, Baranivsky said.

The state of emergency also sets up a larger six-mile zone that will be put under close monitoring.

"The main thing is for people to understand that all measures are being taken for their benefit and are not aimed against them," Yushchenko said on television.

Olha Rohatyna, 58, who lives in one of the infected villages and keeps about 30 birds, told The Associated Press by telephone that she knew little about the situation except for what she had seen on television.

"But we are not scared. The main thing is that everyone is alive," she said.

Rohatyna said she knew birds were dying in large numbers in another part of her village, which stretches about four miles.

"It's a frightening, lightning-fast form (of the virus)," Maria Trukhanovskaya, chief veterinary official of the Crimea region, said in televised comments.

Ukraine began preparing for bird flu when the virus turned up in neighboring Romania and Turkey, located across the Black Sea. The country ordered bird farms into a lockdown and demanded that all domestic fowl be kept inside.

Natasha Kosyleva, a 25-year-old shopping in downtown Kiev, said she was concerned that people will sell infected birds at small outside markets. Her parents live in the Crimean city of Yalta.

"We have many small poultry farms in Crimea and for our poor people, it is the only source to earn money to feed their families," she said. "I heard this awful news on TV and immediately called my parents to ask them not to eat poultry."
 
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Ukraine starts destroying sick birds

Ukraine starts destroying sick birds

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/410965/635902


Dec 5, 2005

Ukrainian troops moved from house to house in five villages where a virulent strain of bird flu has been detected, removing domestic birds for a mass cull in pits being excavated by diggers.

Emergency Ministry troops, covered from head to toe in plastic and wearing masks, rounded up squawking chickens, ducks and geese, stuffed them in plastic bags and tossed them in the back of dump trucks in the Crimea peninsula on Sunday.

Villagers could do little but watch and head for administrative offices to receive compensation for every head lost. Chickens, for instance, were set at the equivalent of $3.

"What can you do? A bird is just a bird," said one elderly villager, her head wrapped in a brown shawl.

"If it becomes ill, you can't feel sorry about it. The main thing is to preserve human life."

Authorities imposed tough measures on Saturday to contain the outbreak, the first in the ex-Soviet state.

But villagers told reporters their poultry had been hit by disease for more than two months without any official action being taken. Families had continued to eat meat from what were deemed to be healhty birds.

Police and Interior Ministry troops stood alongside barriers and handwritten "Quarantine" signs outside three-km exclusion zones around the villages, though some residents were still passing in and out.

Villagers were being vaccinated against human forms of flu.

Further 10-km monitoring zones were in place in the peninsula jutting into the Black Sea - a major stopping point for migratory birds heading south for the winter.

Lethal virus

Agriculture Minister Oleksander Baranivsky on Saturday identified the virus as H5, and said it was highly lethal to birds and may be dangerous to humans.

Official data showed more than 2,500 birds had died since Friday and samples were sent to laboratories in Britain and Italy for further analysis to see if the virus is the deadly H5N1 strain.

Mechanical diggers prepared pits to accommodate the remains of the birds, due to be incinerated with napalm - stored from the Soviet era and brought to the region in drums aboard trucks.

Other soldiers chopped logs to build make-shift bath-houses for servicemen - to ensure they washed regularly.

Ukraine had previously been declared free of bird flu, though the deadly H5N1 virus had been discovered not far from its borders in Romania and Russia. New cases of bird flu were detected in southeastern Romania at the weekend and officials said the birds had most likely contracted the H5N1 strain.

Ukraine's top veterinary surgeon, Petro Verbytsky, repeated that no humans had been affected and said contagion from the virus was unlikely.

"The question now is that of dealing with a different sort of flu," he said, suggesting that human forms of flu were the priority for medics. "There is 1,000 times less chance of becoming ill from bird flu than there is from tuberculosis."

The H5N1 virus is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia where it has killed almost 70 people since 2003 and prompted the slaughter of millions of domestic birds.

Many scientists fear H5N1 could kill millions of people if it mutates into a form that passes easily among humans. But so far, there is no sign the virus has changed in this way.
 
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