"Such a prompt decoding of the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza allows already today to begin the development of a test system that will allow to quickly detect cases of the disease in humans and make a decision about starting treatment," TASS quotes him.
Maksyutov added that this will allow "to begin work on the creation of a candidate vaccine strain."
Earlier, the head of Rospotrebnadzor reported that seven workers of a poultry farm in southern Russia were diagnosed with bird flu.
The new causative agent of avian influenza A (H5N8) can be transmitted from birds to humans.
Case data have been sent to WHO.