According to a ProMED-Mail report and concurrent media postings, officials in Russia have notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a possible infection of poultry farm workers with H5N8 avian influenza. According to the report, workers were asymptomatic and there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Dr. Anna Bopova, Head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing noted that workers on seven poultry farms were involved.
The provisional diagnosis has yet to be confirmed and evaluated. Highly pathogenic strain H5N8 is widely distributed among migratory birds and commercial farms in the E.U., India South Korea and Japan but as yet there has been no report of infection in either 
farmers or workers involved in flock depletion. It must be presumed that appropriate surveillance has been implemented in affected nations but no reports of human infection have been forwarded to either the WHO or the OIE.