January 3, 2008

Bird flu strikes geese farms in southern Vietnam

Bird flu struck two more poultry farms in southern Vietnam, animal health officials confirmed Wednesday (January 2).

More than 600 geese and poultry were slaughtered after the virus killed several geese in two farms in Da Loc of Tra Vinh province, where an outbreak also occurred earlier in December, said the Animal Health Department.

Vietnam's government beforehand warned of avian influenza's dreaded comeback as the northern winter months have high spread risk of flu viruses ahead of February's Tet lunar New Year, when travel and poultry consumption go up.

A four-year-old Vietnamese boy died of bird flu on December 16, becoming the country's fifth victim of the H5N1 strain in 2007 and the 47th since late 2003, when bird flu first hit the Southeast Asian country.

The H5N1 strain is mainly an animal disease but scientists fear it could mutate to easily jump from human to human, sparking a deadly global pandemic.