Moscow enforces H5N1 bird flu quarantine

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been confirmed in eight suburban Moscow districts, a Russian veterinary official said today

Experts enforced a quarantine in several villages and sought to keep the disease from spreading.

Nikolai Vlasov, head of agriculture oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor, said increased awareness about bird flu had led to a rush of calls from people reporting bird deaths.

"According to recent data, we now have eight places (where H5N1 has been confirmed), three of them were added recently," he said.

The virus, which began killing domestic birds in the Moscow suburbs on February 9, has been traced to a single animal market just outside the capital.

No human cases of bird flu have been reported in Russia, which had its first reported cases of the H5N1 strain in Siberia in 2005.