#4074
Martin W
Participant

    From a correspondent: Just came across this article. Appears the Russians are hell bent on blaming wild birds. I dread to think what "The situation has been neutralized," means.   

    Apr 25 2006 6:49PM Epicenter of pandemic bird flu strain shifts to Russia – Onishchenko MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax) – A bird flu pandemic is highly probable in Russia this summer, said Gennady Onishchenko, chief of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer rights watchdog. "The epicenter of the bird flu virus’s pandemic strain formation has shifted to Russia," Onishchenko told a news conference on Tuesday. Therefore, Rospotrebnadzor and other agencies’ serious and successful work will largely determine when the pandemic strain strikes our planet, he said. Due to unusually cold temperatures in the Southern Caspian region – in Iran and Turkey–and rather warm weather in southern Russia this year, migrating birds nested in unlikely places. "This explains early bird flu outbreaks in Dagestan and other locations in the Southern Federal District," Onishchenko said. "The situation has been neutralized," Onishchenko added.