Avian flu detected in wild birds in west

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been discovered in western Kazakhstan, officials said on Wednesday. “Cases of highly pathological bird flu [H5N1] have been confirmed by laboratory tests in a dead wild bird from the Caspian shore [Mangistau province],” an official at the Kazakh agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), avian influenza is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. Avian influenza viruses are highly species specific, but in some cases infect humans, with the causative agent, the H5N1 virus, being particularly deadly both for animals and humans. Despite the destruction of an estimated 150 million birds, the virus is now considered endemic in many parts of Indonesia and Vietnam and in some parts of Cambodia, China and Thailand. The deadly strain has killed almost 100 people worldwide, mainly in Asia, where it was first registered in late 2003, according to the WHO. No cases of humans contracting bird flu have been reported in Kazakhstan, which saw a previous outbreak of the disease in animals in the north of the country in August 2005. In an effort to stave off outbreaks in domestic birds, preventive measures are already under way in western Kazakhstan, including mass vaccination of domestic birds, particularly backyard poultry. “As of Wednesday, 32,800 domestic fowl have been vaccinated against the highly pathogenic avian influenza in the area,” the agriculture ministry official maintained. Asylbek Kozhimuratov, head of the Kazakh agriculture ministry, said that all domestic poultry had been vaccinated in Mangistau province. Vaccination is under way in another western province, Atyrau, which is believed to be vulnerable to the virus. Some 40,000 doses of vaccine have been provided for that purpose, according to the ministry. Kazakh authorities have not yet resorted to mass culling of poultry in the area. “There has not been any culling of domestic birds because avian flu has been registered only in wild birds… so far,” ministry officials said. But officials have called for people to take care to prevent transmission of the virus. “People should follow hygiene norms and avoid contact with wild birds, especially they should prevent their children from such contact,” Kozhimuratov added.