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Bird flu outbreaks in Russia spark concern over US bio experiments in Ukraine — top brass

Russian Defense Ministry specialists, together with Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives and specialists from agricultural regulator Rosselkhoznadzor, confirmed the facts of the collection and certification of bird flu strains on the territory of the Askania-Nova nature reserve

MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Outbreaks of bird flu in Russia are causing concerns about US-contracted biological experiments that had been conducted at the Askania-Nova nature reserve in Kherson, when it was under Ukrainian control, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, said on Friday.

He highlighted instances of the mass die-off of birds that occurred within the Kherson reserve in 2021. The Ukrainian side offered large cash rewards to the employees of the institution for removing or destroying the results of studies on bird flu strains that had been conducted there. Kirillov pointed out that the US government had been the contractor for such projects.

"Against this background, the increase in incidences of bird flu in Russia and in European countries is of particular concern. [In Europe,] according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the disease has become prevalent year-round and losses from it since 2021 have exceeded 3 billion euros. Since the beginning of this year, 32 outbreaks of bird flu have been registered in Russia in all federal districts. In the last week alone, the disease was detected at enterprises in the Kirov and Yaroslavl regions. Since May 17, 2023, quarantine measures for highly pathogenic bird flu have been introduced in Moscow," Kirillov said during a briefing on US military and biological activities.

Russian Defense Ministry specialists, together with Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives and specialists from agricultural regulator Rosselkhoznadzor, confirmed the facts of the collection and certification of bird flu strains on the territory of the Askania-Nova nature reserve, including of the H5N8 strain, which can have a lethality rate of up to 40% if transmitted to humans, the Russian defense official pointed out.

"Even in the decontaminated samples, there still are traces of genetic material of highly pathogenic bird flu, Newcastle disease, avuloviruses," Kirillov stressed.

Earlier, the Russian defense official reported that the main objective of the US-contracted research carried out at the Askania-Nova nature reserve was to collect strains of especially dangerous and economically significant infections and transfer them to the Pentagon.

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