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Russia steps up bird flu measures in light of fall migration

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VLADIVOSTOK, September 26 (RIA Novosti) - Measures against bird flu have been stepped up in Russia's Far East due to the fall migration, the local administration said Tuesday.

Veterinary services took 1,100 blood samples from wild fowl and domestic birds throughout the Primorye Territory, eight time zones east of Moscow, from July to September 2006.

"No case of bird flu has been reported," the administration said.

Domestic birds were vaccinated against avian flu in the spring, when over 830,000 poultry at farms and private households were inoculated.

The disease has spread worldwide since it first appeared in Asia in 2003, and has claimed dozens of human lives. No human fatalities have been reported in Russia.

This year, an epidemic of the deadly H5N1 virus broke out in five Siberian and 11 southern regions, resulting in the deaths and culling of about 1.5 million birds.

But the outbreaks of the virus among domestic fowl were eradicated and quarantine restrictions lifted across neighboring Siberia in August.

Primorye borders on three Asian nations, and thousands of migrating birds cross its territory during the spring and fall migrations.

The administration said it opened a center to fight the disease, allocated funds to buy medicines for massive vaccination campaigns and set up mobile veterinary brigades. The measures, it said, will help deter outbreaks in the region this fall.

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