MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The United States carried our research work at biological laboratories in Ukraine searching for conditions on how viruses may inflict economic damage on other countries, Chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops Igor Kirillov said.

"Wild birds were under research work as vectors for passing on bird flu strains at the Kharkov Veterinary Institute within the ‘Flu-Fly-Way’ project," he said. "Other conditions were evaluated simultaneously, under which the contagiousness can go out of control eventually causing an economic damage and risks of food supplies."

Research on bird flu ‘getting out of control’

Within the Flu-Fly-Way project, the Kharkov Institute of Veterinary Medicine studied wild birds as vectors for the transmission of highly pathogenic avian flu. "At the same time, the conditions were assessed under which the transmission process could get out of control, cause economic damage and pose risks to food security," Kirillov said earlier.

According to him, the documents found by the Russian Armed Forces confirm the involvement of this institute in collecting strains of bird flu viruses that have a high epidemic potential and can be transmitted between species.

He stressed that the damage to Russia from avian flu in 2021 alone, amounted to more than 1.7 billion rubles ($20 million). As a result, six million heads of poultry were destroyed. In Europe, the losses of the agricultural sector amounted to about 25 million euro.

Diseases in Donbass

Kirillov previously stated that the number of TB cases caused by new multi-drug-resistant strains grew in Donbass in 2018. This data was confirmed by the Russian sanitary watchdog. In particular, over 70 cases of rapid fatalities were reported during an outbreak in the area of the Peski settlement. "This may indicate a deliberate infection or an accidental leakage of the pathogen from a biolab located in Ukraine," he said.