VOLGOGRAD, April 13 (RIA Novosti) - Quarantine regulations have been introduced at a village in southern Russia after mass death of birds already vaccinated against the disease, a local official said Thursday.
The official said 20 birds vaccinated against the lethal H5N1 strain of the disease April 4 had died at a small homestead in a Volgograd region village.
"The birds had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu," he said, adding that the remaining 25 birds at the homestead have been slaughtered.
In late March, bird flu hit another village in the region, where 85 birds kept in the yard of a house had died.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said this week that around 1.1 million birds had died of the disease in Russia while 0.3 million have been culled in measures to control the spread of the virus since February 3.
The H5N1 strain returned to southern Russia, a stopover for migrating birds, in February, following outbreaks last year
Before today's deaths, officials said a massive vaccination campaign had made it possible to prevent an epidemic, with around 20 million birds vaccinated in 62 Russia's regions since March 10.
No human cases of bird flu have been diagnosed in Russia.
