Highly pathogenic avian influenza is one of the main diseases that threatens poultry and livestock farming in the Leningrad region, said Leonid Krotov, head of the regional veterinary department. According to him, this year Russia had to deal with increased mass cases of illness and death of seagulls from bird flu, RBC reports.
Krotov noted that outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza were registered in 39 regions, and industrial poultry enterprises in the Vologda and Yaroslavl regions were affected. According to veterinary requirements, 500 thousand birds were destroyed in these regions. “Enterprises suffered great economic damage, the regional economy also suffered: these include jobs and budget revenues,” said the chief veterinarian of the Leningrad region.
As for the Leningrad region itself, according to Krotov, in the summer of 2023, corpses of seagulls with the genome of the bird flu pathogen were discovered in the waters of the Gulf of Finland. “This species of gull, it was recognized by zoologists, is recorded in Finland and Estonia,” Krotov said, adding that the bird was in transit.
At the same time, according to him, in the Leningrad region the situation with highly pathogenic avian influenza is favorable; the causative agent of this disease has not been registered at enterprises.
Source: Rosbalt
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