February 22, 2012

To be able to identify gene structure change of the virus, the Animal Health Department of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has sent 32 blood samples of local bird flu-infected fowls to South Korea.

The results are expected to be sent back three or four days later, the department said Tuesday (Feb 21).

The department earlier sent 28 samples for analysis in South Korea, which said that the bird flu virus strain were found of changing into two variant Clade 2.3.2-A and 2.3.2-B from the Clade 2.3.2.

The new strain, which has killed tens of thousands of fowls in the north, central, and Central Highlands regions, is lethal and more aggressive compared to the previous strains.

There is no effective vaccine to cope with the new virus strain, which causes the bird flu disease to break out in 12 provinces in all three regions in the country.

The northern province of Bac Ninh is the 12th province being found of the disease reoccurrence this year. The disease has infected 500 chickens in the province.