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MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will ban hunting for wild birds this year amid fears of a growing bird flu pandemic, the country's chief doctor said Tuesday.
Gennady Onishchenko said: "We will ban hunting and all measures connected with birds will aim to scare them away from residential communities and poultry farms."
Onishchenko said that cases of bird flu had been registered in nine regions in Russia, which covers an eighth of the world's land mass.
"The world is currently in the first phase of pandemic," said Onishchenko, referring to the five-phase classification of the World Health Organization. "But Russia is in the second phase of the interpandemic period, since, thankfully, no bird flu cases among humans has been registered in the country."
Onishchenko said a total of 175 human cases of avian influenza had been registered since 2003, with at least 94 fatalities.
