February 28, 2007

Vietnam to allow raising of waterfowl amid bird flu outbreak

Vietnam will lift a ban on raising ducks and geese despite a fresh outbreak of bird flu in the country's north, officials said Tuesday (Feb 27).

Beginning Thursday, farmers will be allowed to resume hatching and restocking waterfowl, said Bui Ba Bong, vice minister of agriculture. The government imposed the ban in 2005 in a bid to prevent the spread of bird flu because waterfowl can carry the deadly H5N1 virus without showing symptoms.

That ban, however, was largely ignored by many farmers who continued raising waterfowl.

Unvaccinated waterfowl were partly blamed for a bird flu outbreak among poultry that spread rapidly across eight southern Mekong Delta provinces in January, killing or forcing the slaughter of about 40,000 birds. It was the first outbreak to hit Vietnam in a year.

A vaccine doesn't exist for one-day-old ducklings as it does for one-day-old chicks, increasing the risk because ducks must wait until they are 14 days old before they can be immunised. Many are typically shipped to markets prior to that age.

Officials on Monday confirmed that bird flu has now spread to northern Vietnam, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 10,000 chicks at a farm in Hai Duong province near Hanoi nearly two weeks ago.

Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat on Tuesday urged local authorities to remain vigilant against the bird flu virus.

"The outbreak in Hai Duong province showed that the bird flu virus is still everywhere in the country," Phat said. "The virus will attack in areas where there are loopholes."