Moscow ? At least a million domestic birds will be vaccinated against avian flu near Moscow now that the disease has reached areas surrounding the Russian capital, a senior local veterinary official said Monday.

“All the birds will be vaccinated for free,” Olga Gavrilenko, head of the local department of Russia’s veterinary watchdog, said after a deadly virus of bird flu was registered in five districts of the Moscow Region this weekend.

All poultry in the region normally is inoculated twice a year, in spring and in fall. But in view of the current epidemic, experts have recommended that all the birds be immunized again.