MAKHACHKALA, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - Daghestan has received 1.71 million doses of a bird flu vaccine in the wake of an outbreak of the deadly disease, a source in the administration of the North Caucasus republic said Friday.
According to the source, veterinary experts will inoculate poultry within a week at most in 21 villages from 11 districts where the virus has been diagnosed. "This measure is necessary in light of the upcoming migration of birds from their winter grounds to Russia through Daghestan, expected on March 15-20," said Nadyr Korsakov, deputy chairman of the local government's veterinary committee.
Vaccination will cover the coast of the Caspian Sea and the basins of rivers, lakes and ponds, where poultry could come into contact with migrating birds.
Korsakov said that over 800,000 birds had been culled at farms since the epidemic broke out.
"But the private sector suffered the biggest blow, and a mechanism of compensation for culled birds has not yet been established," he said, though he added $2 per bird had been named as a preliminary figure.
The first outbreaks of bird flu were identified at two poultry farms in Daghestan in late January-early February. Laboratory analysis revealed the lethal H5N1 strain.
