MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti) - An outbreak of bird flu in southern Krasnodar Territory has been contained through mass vaccination of poultry, the region's governor said Friday.
"The situation has stabilized by now, with the spread of bird flu contained," Alexander Tkachev said, adding that this was largely thanks to a large batch of vaccine sent by federal authorities.
The pathogenic H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus returned to southern Russia in February, and Krasnodar found itself among the worst affected regions. Emergencies officials say over a million birds have been slaughtered in the area since last month's outbreak, but a massive vaccination campaign launched at local poultry farms in March has made it possible to prevent an epidemic.
No human cases of bird flu have been diagnosed in Russia.
