bird flu 'fatal to humans'

Ukraine bird flu 'fatal to humans'
A Russian veterinary official has said that the bird flu strain found in Ukraine is the same one that has decimated flocks of birds in Asia, a Russian agency reported.

Ukrainian officials refused to confirm the report.

Ukraine announced its first case of bird flu on December 3, revealing that some 2,500 domestic fowl had died suddenly in a marsh area on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

The Health Ministry reported that the outbreak, initially confined to six villages, had spread to nine by Friday, and dying birds were reported in a total of 16 villages and the peninsula's regional capital, Simferopol.

Authorities sent samples from the dead birds to laboratories in Britain and Italy, seeking to confirm whether the strain was H5N1, the same type that has affected Asia.

Experts fear the strain could trigger a human flu pandemic if it mutates into a form that is easily spread between people. Since 2003, the virus has killed at least 69 people in Asia - most of them farm workers who came into close contact with infected birds.

Sergei Dankvert, the chief of Russia's Federal Veterinary Service, was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying that a laboratory in the Russian city of Vladimir had confirmed the strain found in Ukraine was "the so-called Asian strain H5N1 that poses a potential threat to man."

The Russian veterinary service press department could not confirm the ITAR-Tass report, and the laboratory, the All-Russia Research Institute of Animal Protection, referred callers to the Agriculture Ministry in Moscow, which oversees the vet service.

Petro Kovalenko, a senior official at Ukraine's Veterinary Service, however, said they had not received any confirmation.

He refused to comment on whether the Russian laboratory results would satisfy Ukraine, saying the main priority was to continue working to stem the outbreak. Earlier, the Agriculture Ministry had said it would wait for findings considered more definitive from a British laboratory