January 4, 2008

Bird flu kills 350 ducks in northern Vietnam

Another 350 white-winged ducks in northern Vietnam were victims of bird flu this week, the first outbreak detected in the country this year, the government said on Thursday (January 3).

The virus was found at a farm raising two-month-old ducks in Thai Nguyen province and animal health workers slaughtered all the remaining birds there to prevent it spreading, the Animal Health Department said in its daily report.

The virus had already struck hundreds of ducks and chickens in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh in the south and the province is still on the government's bird flu watchlist, along with Thai Nguyen.

Officials say cold weather now affecting northern provinces and a rising demand for poultry ahead of the Lunar New Year/Tet festival early next month could help revive and spread the H5N1 virus, which appears to thrive best at cool temperature.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 212 people out of 343 known cases, with most of the deaths in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Egypt, the WHO figures show.