ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 20 (RIA Novosti, Sergei Rudkovsky) - More than 17,000 birds have died of bird flu in southern Russia in the last 24 hours, an official said Monday.
"In the Krasnodar Territory, 17,128 chickens have died over the last 24 hours, and the total number of dead birds has reached 420,388," the official said.
An Emergency Situations Ministry center in the region said that since March 13, when vaccination of birds against the virus started, some 1.28 million birds had been inoculated in the Krasnodar Territory, along with 1.25 million in Daghestan and 320,800 in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.
About 327,000 birds have been vaccinated in the Republic of Kalmykia in southern European Russia since March 14, and 810,000 in the Stavropol Territory since March 11.
A new wave of bird flu struck Russia on February 3 following outbreaks last year. The country's southern regions, where all cases in the country have so far been registered, are particularly vulnerable as they are a stopover for migrating birds.
No human deaths from bird flu have so far been registered in Russia.
