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Moscow reports hundreds more birds found dead

Hundreds of birds have died suddenly in a region south of Moscow, Russian media reported yesterday, raising fears of a new outbreak of bird flu in Russia.

If confirmed, the discovery in the Tula region would mark the first time that the deadly virus has appeared in European Russia, west of the Ural Mountains.

At least 247 chickens, geese and ducks died between last Friday and Monday on a farm in the village of Yandovka because of a severe viral infection, Vremya Novostei newspaper reported. NTV television said 270 birds had died and the village had been put under quarantine.

State-run television reported that local officials had determined that bird flu had caused the deaths.

ITAR-Tass also said more than 200,000 people in the region, some 200km south of Moscow, had received flu vaccinations.

The disease had been registered in six regions of Siberia and the Urals region.

Meanwhile, a UN agency war-ned yesterday that the risk of bird flu spreading to the Middle East and Africa has markedly increased following the confirmation of outbreaks in Romania and Turkey.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement that recent appearance of the H5N1 bird flu strain in Romania and Turkey confirmed that the virus was spreading along the routes of migratory birds.

"One of our major concerns is now the potential spread of avian influenza through migratory birds to northern and eastern Africa," Joseph Domenech, Chief Veterinary Officer at the Rome-based agency, said in a statement.

"There is a serious risk that this scenario may become a reality," he said.

The statement also mentioned the increased risk that bird flu could spread to the Middle East.

Warning of the possible consequences of an outbreak in Africa, the agency appealed to the international community to help the region increase its ability to tackle a possible outbreak.

"If the virus were to become endemic in eastern Africa, it could increase the risk of the virus to evolve through mutation or reassortment into a strain that could be transmitted to and between humans," Domenech said.

However, Europeans should not panic about bird flu as there is only a slight risk of humans contracting it and there is no immediate threat of a pandemic, an EU disease prevention agency said yesterday.

Greece is waiting to see if it has become the first EU state with a case of the H5N1 avian virus.

"For the time being there is no reason to panic in Europe," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, head of the Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

"This virus is not yet adapted to humans, it is not capable of human-to-human transmission and until that happens this will not be a pandemic strain," Jakab said.

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