Since February 10, dead poultry with traces of a deadly H5N1 virus have been found in Moscow, eight districts of the Moscow Region and a district in the Kaluga Region, but no cases of humans infected with the virus have been registered and emergency measures have been taken to stop the spread of the disease.
"We are not expecting any new cases of bird flu [in the region]," said Nikolai Vlasov, department head at the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision.
He said that the last avian flu case was registered on February 22 and 2,146 birds have been culled.
"It is obvious that the Moscow incident is over," Vlasov said.
The veterinary official said all H5N1 cases have been traced to a single market in southwest Moscow and an ongoing investigation has determined that contaminated fowl originated from either Central Asia or southern Russia.
"It has been determined by a genetic analysis of the discovered H5N1 traces [in dead poultry], Vlasov said.
He also reiterated that the current outbreak did not affect state poultry farms where strict food safety measures have been introduced since the first bird flu case was registered in Russia in 2005.
"As for the large poultry farms, we are certain there is no virus there," the official said.
According to the food safety watchdog, Russia could face a number of avian flu outbreaks in the spring when wild birds start migrating from the south.
"When the [bird] migration starts, we are expecting that wild birds will carry the virus to the Urals and Siberia, and even to Russia's Far East where no bird flu cases have been registered so far," Vlasov said.
According to the World Health Organization, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected at least 273 people from 11 countries and claimed 167 human lives since it first appeared in Asia in 2003. It has since spread worldwide, and scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form transmissible between humans, sparking a global pandemic.
Russia recorded its first cases of avian flu in August 2005, but until now outbreaks have occurred only in southern provinces and in Siberia.
