Moscow - An outbreak of the avian influenza virus in the Moscow region involves the H5N1 strain potentially lethal to humans is involved, officials confirmed Sunday.
Veterinary authority spokesman Aleksei Alekseyenko said the source of the outbreak was a Moscow poultry market from which all the infected birds - known to have reached five farms - had come.
Russia's top public health official Gennadi Onishenko had already said on Friday it was believed that the outbreak was of the H5N1 strain.
The bird flu virus was registered at the beginning of the week in a small village close to the Russian capital, with nine birds dead from the disease. The village is now under quarantine.
