Russia's chief epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, on Friday confirmed bird flu as the cause of poultry deaths at two private farms outside Moscow - in the southern Domodedovo District and in Odintsovo, to the west. The third bird flu site was detected Saturday at a private household in the Podolsk district in the south of the Moscow Region.
"The situation is the same as in the three previous cases: the hens were bought on Moscow's Ptichy pet market," Alexei Panteleyev said.
Russia recorded its first cases of bird flu in August 2005, but until now, outbreaks have occurred only in southern provinces and in Siberia.
According to Panteleyev, a group of veterinary inspectors have been dispatched to the district but it has not yet been confirmed that the hens have died of avian influenza there.
All pavilions that sell birds at Moscow's Ptichy market have been closed since Friday, and veterinary inspectors are now looking for any traces of the virus there.