January 5, 2006

Vietnam completes poultry vaccination, lifts ban on processed poultry imports

Vietnam has completed its mass bird flu vaccination on poultry, announced Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat at a Jan 4 meeting in Ho Chi Minh city.

Over 150 million birds--two-thirds of which were chickens and the rest ducks--had been given two shots each since the vaccination campaign began late July last year.

The country's Animal Health Department (AHD) pointed out that though there had been no thorough study on the effect of the vaccination, preliminary assessments showed no outbreaks among immunised flocks.

Vietnam culled nearly 4 million birds since the bird flu epidemic re-emerged in October 2005.

In that same month, the country's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat announced a ban on the import of all poultry and ornamental birds from Nov 1, 2005 to Mar 31, 2006.

Recently, Vietnam lifted the import ban on processed poultry products at the instructions of Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The government is now looking to remove the ban on live fowl imports from countries free of bird flu.

However amid the good news, AHD's deputy director Hoang Van Nam warned that while bird flu outbreaks among the country's poultry appear to be waning, it could very well flare up again.

Hoang explained that cooler temperatures and increased movement of people and poultry prior to the Lunar New Year, which falls end-January this year, make it easier for the virus to spread.