February 23, 2005

Vietnam's poultry raising standards need revamp

A top Vietnamese official said Tuesday that the country¡¯s farmers need to change traditional poultry raising practices to curb the spread of the deadly bird flu virus.

Bui Quang Anh, head of the Department for Animal Health said that although habits die hard, farmers need to be educated on sanitary practices and made to understand new poultry breeding instructions.

A dozen people have died of bird flu in Vietnam since Dec 30, raising concerns that the disease could be re-emerging after an outbreak last year spread to 10 Asian countries, forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds.

Anh said big commercial farms learned from the first outbreak and applied preventive measures, such as strict hygiene standards and regular disinfection. The most recent outbreak was only reported in small farms, which failed to apply preventive measures, he said.

New regulations should include separating ducks from chickens, requiring ducks to be raised in cages, and increased hygiene measures, Anh said. Ducks should not roam freely in rice fields as they do now in the southern Mekong Delta, he added.

An international conference is to be held in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss ways to fight bird flu.

The virus, which killed 45 people - including 32 from Vietnam, 12 from Thailand and one from Cambodia - in the last year has yet to mutate into a form that can transmit between humans, causing a global pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.