February 17, 2005

Mass cull of poultry in Vietnam's largest city

The slaughter of all poultry will take place in Ho Chi Minh City in the hope of stamping out the deadly bird flu virus that has killed 13 people in Vietnam in recent weeks.

The city of 10 million people, which is near the Mekong Delta where Vietnam's latest outbreak of the H5N1 virus began, had already ordered the killing of all its ducks, which can carry the disease without showing symptoms.

But state newspapers said the government of Vietnam's largest city had ordered the slaughter extended to all poultry and the killing would begin on Friday.

It is the latest tough action taken in the communist country's war against a virus that experts fear could mutate into a form that could pass between humans and cause a pandemic that might kill millions in a world without immunity.

The government curbed the movement of poultry in the run up to last week's Tet, the Lunar New Year festival, banned the raising of all waterfowl until June 30 and called for international expertise to help control the virus.