Putin calls for plan to prevent bird flu in Russia

President Vladimir Putin today called on Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to develop a plan to prevent bird flu in Russia, Russian news agencies reported.

“We must do everything possible in order not to allow this problem to emerge here,” the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying at a meeting with top government officials.

Putin called for measures to be taken at markets and borders, noting that many of Russia’s neighbours – China, Turkey, Ukraine and Romania – had seen outbreaks of the potentially deadly disease, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Russia recorded its first cases of bird flu last summer, in Siberia, and the H5N1 strain spread west of the Ural Mountains into the European part of the country, in October.

In contrast to Turkey and other Asian nations, however, no people have been infected by bird flu in Russia.