With the country bracing itself for a potential wave of the disease when migrating birds return to the country in spring, the Primorye Territory's branch of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare said drills to contain a possible outbreak would be held first in the cities than in villages. The efforts will also cover all the region's ports.
Simultaneously, the Territory, which borders on China and other Southeast Asian nations - the original hotspots of bird flu, where at least 70 people are reported to have died of the disease since 2003 - has been implementing a separate preventive program. No human bird flu cases have been reported in the region thanks to the measures that have been taken.
"The program includes an impressive raft of measures designed to prevent the dangerous disease's spread into the region," the service said. The local authorities have opened disinfecting centers in ports, road check points, and airports, and building large furnaces to burn garbage in an effort to eliminate any trace of the virus.
All measures under the program are to be completed in spring when birds start migrating from Southeast Asia via the Far East.
"Veterinary services will take tests at places where migrating birds gather en masse," the service said.
Scientists fear the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus could mutate into a strain that can pass easily between people, triggering a human pandemic.
