Rosselkhoznadzor continues to monitor outbreaks of bird flu in Russia

The unprecedented spread of avian influenza in the world has led to mass mortality of animals, including domestic and wild birds and some species of mammals, and caused enormous economic damage to agricultural producers. The A/Goose/Guangdong/96 avian influenza A/Goose/Guangdong/96 avian influenza viruses were first identified in 1996 and have regularly caused outbreaks in bird populations ever since. Since 2020, one of the strains of this line, belonging to the H5 2.3.4.4b clade, has caused unprecedented mortality in wild and domestic birds in many countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. In 2021, the virus spread to North America, and in 2022 to Central and South America. In 2022, 67 countries on five continents notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HAI) H5N1 in poultry and wild birds, resulting in more than 131 million deaths on affected farms and villages due to mortality or forced slaughter poultry. As the ...