The H5N1 or the "bird flu" possibly has reached Azerbaijan

According to Sultanov, a member of the center visited Nakhchivan and has observed there a massive death of migrating water birds. In the water basin of Araz river there were found and buried 200 dead ducks. “It is possible that other, smaller kinds of water birds have died too. They are being collected and buried,” said Sultanov.

“Local veterinary service has taken probes for studying. The results not known yet. It is known that there are cases of this infection in Turkey but we don’t have any news from Iran yet. However if it managed to reach Turkey it is 100 percents possible that it managed to reach the Caucuses, has reached us” emotionally added Sultanov.

Though he is sure that the virus already has reached the republic the head of the Republican Ornithology Center believes that the virus is still contained and is not wide spread. That is why the monitoring made by the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry and Republican Veterinary Service did not show any steps of the virus being present – believes Sultanov.

However the Ministry of Ecology defends his own statement released not long ago that Azerbaijan is not infected yet. It states that blood samples of the dead water birds were taken for analysis and if they were infected then the official Baku would be notified by now.

ANS/EV