The Russian Federation reported an outbreak of H5NI highly pathogenic avian influenza to the World Organization for Animal Health at the end of October.  The outbreak near Khabarovsk on the Amur River in southeast Russia was diagnosed clinically on October 23rd. The case involved a flock of 523,000 birds with type not specified.  The diagnosis was confirmed by rRT-PCR on October 30th denoting a delay in conducting laboratory procedures.

Russia infrequently reports outbreaks of HPAI and these are invariably in backyard flocks.  It is unusual to receive a report confirming an outbreak in a large commercial farm.