MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - A quarantine has been introduced at all poultry farms in Russia after the bird flu virus was discovered in the Novosibirsk region (Siberia), the Agriculture Ministry said.

According to the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision, research shows the bird disease was caused by the H5N1 virus and preliminarily spread by migrant birds from South East Asia. The bird flu was discovered in 14 settlements in five districts of the Novosibirsk region, in a village of the Altai Territory (southern Siberia), and in a village of the Tyumen region (West Siberia).

Information is being verified in other regions where bird deaths have been reported.

The incineration of diseased birds and of birds that may have come in contact with them in a number of villages suspected of bird flu outbreaks allowed the virus to be localized.

The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision is doing everything possible to control and eliminate the areas of infection and is taking sanitary measures, including instructing the population on rules of sanitation for poultry. Experts have been assigned to the Novosibirsk and Tyumen regions and the Altai Territory to assist in conducting epidemic countermeasures.