February 22, 2005

Vietnam to test bird flu virus for waterfowls

From late February to early March, Vietnam will test for the bird flu virus for entire flocks of more than 500 waterfowls to quickly detect and fully deal with the disease.

If a waterfowl is tested positive to the H5N1 strain, the entire flock will be culled by burning. Vietnam's Animal Health Department will also test the virus for samples from quails, migrant and wild birds.

Bird flu, which has killed and led to the forced culling of more than 1.5 million fowls in 35 cities and provinces of Vietnam since January, is cooling down. On Feb 20, only four new bird flu-affected spots in three southern provinces of Vinh Long, Ben Tre and Bac Lieu were reported. Ten provinces and cities nationwide have detected no new affected spots in their territories for at least 21 days.

Vietnam has experienced three outbreaks of bird flu in people since late December 2003, killing 32 local people. In the most recent outbreak starting from Dec 16, 2004, the country has detected 17 local people to contract H5N1, of whom 12 have died, and the five from the northern region have fully recovered.