H5N1 to Russia through poultry?

From conservationist concerned re H5N1:

This looks to be an important article: I haven’t sent the whole text,
only the conclusion, as it’s mainly about how they did the analysis.
However, there’s a link to the full piece below.

What’s interesting:

1) The Novosibirsk strain is closely related to those in Asia 2003-2005
and Japan 2003-2004, which we know from Chen and others work were
poultry-derived (there goes another of New Scientist’s silly outburst
statements).
2) Further confirmtion of Guan Yi’s findings that the Qinghai “wild
bird” strain was closely related to Chinese poultry strains, and not a
“new strain” first seen in “wild birds” at the lake.

Given there is now doubt over the “wild” origins of the Bar-headed Geese
at Qinghai, this paper seems to me to strengthen the case even further
for westwards movement of the virus in poultry.

Incidently, did the two Lvov papers (on the Novosibirsk outbreak) ever
get published? They included information on the infamous “asymptomatic
grebe” and were posted on the web for comment. The conclusions on the
data presented were so ridiculous that I imagine the paper was
rejected/withdrawn pending a major rewrite.

H5N1 Influenza Virus, Domestic Birds, Western Siberia, Russia
Alexander M. Shestopalov,* Alexander G. Durimanov,* Vasily A. Evseenko,*
Vladimir A. Ternovoi,* Yury. N. Rassadkin,* Yulya V. Razumova,* Anna V.
Zaykovskaya,* Sergey I. Zolotykh,* and Sergey V. Netesov*
*State Research Center Virology and Biotechnology Vector, Koltsovo,
Novosibirsk, Russia

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no07/05-1338.htm