ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - More than 5.5 million birds have been inoculated against bird flu in southern Russia, a local emergencies official said Tuesday.
"Vaccination is being carried out in 11 regions and republics in southern Russia where the bird flu virus has been discovered," the spokesman said.
Mass vaccination began Monday in the Karachayevo-Circassian Republic in the North Caucasus, where more than 25,000 birds received the injections, and in Rostov Region where the figure was 466,000.
Vaccination is continuing in other southern regions.
The spokesman said fatalities had been registered only in the Krasnodar Territory on the Black Sea in the past 24 hours.
"About 11,000 birds died or were culled in the region," he said.
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.
