January 13, 2004

 

 

Vietnam Turn To UN Aid In Bird Flu Outbreak

 

Vietnam has called for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assistance in resolving the bird flu outbreak in the country.

 

Anton Rychener, the UN agency's representative in Vietnam, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would make a formal request for FAO assistance on Monday.

 

"The agriculture ministry has informed us that their tests show it is bird flu but they have been unable to verify the particular strain of the virus," he said on Friday.

 

"We are keeping on top of the situation and will send experts into the country to help the ministry tackle the matter. The first, a veterinary expert in communicable livestock diseases, will arrive next week."

 

Blood samples from infected chickens have been sent to overseas laboratories for further analysis, the UN official added.

 

Bird flu, which is highly contagious, killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997 and triggered panic in South Korea following an outbreak of the H5N1 type there last month.

 

The outbreak in Vietnam comes ahead of the Lunar New Year festival of Tet, which begins on January 22 and during which chickens are traditionally widely consumed.

 

The disease first emerged last week in the southern provinces of Tien Giang and Long An but subsequently spread to other Mekong Delta provinces and to Ho Chi Minh City as a result of panic selling by local farmers.

 

Outbreaks of the virus have been reported in the north of the country, and it has also spread to other animals.

 

At least 100,000 chickens in Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc and Hoa Binh provinces have died, the Thanh Nien newspaper said Friday.

 

An unknown number of ducks and pigs in the Mekong Delta provinces of Can Tho, Ben Tre and Vinh Long have also died from the same virus, it added.

 

In an urgent communique issued on Thursday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai instructed provinces and cities battling the epidemic to ban the transport of all poultry and destroy all infected animals.

 

Local authorities in the infected areas, which have been placed under quarantine, were also ordered to intensify their monitoring of markets and farms.

 

Agriculture Ministry officials have no accurate death toll but say around 2.5 tons of chickens felled by the virus have been buried in specially dug pits in Ho Chi Minh City alone over the last few days.

 

Nguyen Van Thong, deputy director of the ministry's veterinarian department, admitted Friday that containing the spread of the avarian disease was proving difficult. "Over the past few days, we have not been able to stop or prevent the selling of dead or infected chickens among the population despite our best efforts."

 

Although Thong said there was no evidence to suggest that humans could become infected, the epidemic has left farmers reeling.

 

In a bid to prevent panic sales of chickens by desperate farmers to opportunistic traders cashing in on depressed prices, authorities in Long An province have begun buying all dead chickens from them.

 

Vietnam does not export any chickens.