Ukraine on Sunday began culling chickens, ducks and geese in its southern
Crimea peninsula where the H5-type bird flu virus was detected, the Interfax
news agency reported.
President Viktor Yushchenko, who chaired an emergency meeting on Saturday,
declared a state of emergency in the regions of Sovetskyi and Nizhnegorsky after
confirmation of the H5 bird flu virus, which have killed more than 1,600
domestic birds.
"Today we received laboratory results that confirmed the existence of the H5
variety of bird flu on Ukrainian territory," said Ukrainian Agriculture Minister
Olexander Baranivsky.
Samples would be sent to labs in Britain and Italy for further checking to
see if the virus is of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has killed
nearly 70 people in Asia since 2003.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a new type, which could be
easily transmitted from human to human and cause a pandemic.
A special commission, headed by Emergency Minister Viktor Baloga, would be in
charge of all bird flu-related measures, according to a presidential press
service release.
Sales of live poultry have been banned in the Crimea peninsula and all people
who came in contact with poultry would undergo medical tests, it said.