MOSCOW, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - Bird flu has been diagnosed at a poultry factory in Stavropol Territory in southern Russia, the agriculture ministry said Thursday.
"On March 8, more than 70,000 birds died at the poultry factory," a ministry press release said.
The federal veterinary service said birds started dying at the Bogoslovskoye poultry farm in early March.
"There were 100,000 birds at the farm," the ministry said in a press release.
The service said lab analyses had identified the H5N1 virus strain.
"Anti-viral instructions were not followed there," the ministry said. Veterinary restrictions have been imposed at the factory.
As of March 1, bird flu had hit seven regions in the Southern Federal District: the republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, Daghestan, Chechnya, Kalmykia and Adygea, and the Krasnodar and Stavropol territories.
Over 1.3 million birds have died or been slaughtered in three outbreaks of bird flu since July 2005, or over 44,000 every day, the ministry said. This includes more than 416,000 birds, or about 17,500 every day, that died from the virus.
