In a worrisome leap for the H5N1 avian influenza strain, Russian authorities have reported the first outbreak of the virus on their soil. The outbreak has killed thousands of chickens and wild birds around the Siberian capital of Novosibirsk; it appears to have started on 19 July at a lake in a village called Suzdalka where the two kinds of birds mingle, Russia's chief sanitary physician Gennady Onishchenko said at a press conference this week. A World Health Organization spokesperson says Russia should send samples from the outbreak to a lab outside the country to confirm the presence of the virus.
With many chickens in backyard pens, bird trading at markets, and poor infrastructure in rural Russia, it's unlikely that the country can contain the westward spread of the virus, which means it could reach Europe, says Ilaria Capua, a flu researcher at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Venezie in Italy. "It's going to be very, very, very hard to stop it," she says.
