Fowl deaths due to bird flu reoccurrence in Vietnam
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-30 13:24

More than 3,000 fowls in Vietnam's southern Bac Lieu Province have died of bird flu type A, sub-type H5 by late afternoon of Tuesday, an anonymous local official said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, fowls died en masses have occurred recently in the country's Mekong Delta region.

The reoccurrence of fowl deaths due to flu type A, sub-type H5 in Bac Lieu Province was first detected when over 10 healthy fowls in a farm suddenly died on June 12. Numbers of fowl deaths in the farm had been increasing on the following days, up to 100 per day.

While about 200 fowls tested positive to avian influenza viruses, sub-type H5, in another farm in the province, also died on several days before June 17.

To contain the disease, Bac Lieu Province culled all of the 3, 000 infected chicken. It has also carried urgent preventive measures, focusing on controlling the disease, zoning affected areas, culling all fowls in farms with fowl deaths, spraying chemicals to disinfect farms, and inspecting transportation and trade of fowls in the province. Besides, fowls traded in the local markets must be quarantined.

Earlier, the country was reported to face a high risk of the relapse of bird flu, as 13 localities in the country, including the Mekong Delta, and the Red River Delta, still had avian influenza viruses, mainly in ducks.

Now, Vietnam is strengthening activities to ensure hygiene in the localities, control the import of baby poultry, and overcome the consequences caused by the bird flu outbreak. The government has just allowed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to conduct a project to urgently overcome the aftermath of the bird flu outbreak with total capital of nearly US$7.6 million.

In April, it decided to allocate 245.3 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (US$15.6 million) to 57 localities, helping them prevent bird flu reoccurrence and revive the poultry industry.

In late March 2004, Vietnam declared an end to bird flu that killed 17 percent of its poultry population, and claimed 16 human lives since it broke out last December. A total of 43.2 million fowls in 57 out of 64 localities nationwide either died or were culled, causing the local poultry industry to suffer direct losses of 1.3 trillion VND (US$82.8 million).