Bird flu on Azerbaijan poultry farm is H5N1
Bird flu found this week on a poultry farm in Azerbaijan has been confirmed as the deadly H5N1 strain, a top veterinary official said today.
This marks the first time the virus has spread to domestic fowl in the former Soviet nation. The farm, which lies some 50 miles north of the capital Baku, was placed under quarantine on Monday and authorities began disposing of dead fowl.
“The virus detected in this farm is H5N1,” said Emin Shahbazov, deputy head of the state veterinary service. “We are taking all measures to prevent it from spreading.”
The H5N1 virus was initially discovered in wild birds in Azerbaijan last month in an area along the Caspian Sea coast near Baku and has spread to the southwest near the border with Iran.
No human cases have been recorded in Azerbaijan, which shares a short border with Turkey, where four children died recently of the disease.
Bird flu has killed at least 94 people in Asia and Turkey since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.
Almost all of the human deaths have been linked to contact with infected poultry, but experts fear H5N1 could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, sparking a human flu pandemic.
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