March 6, 2007

Bird flu hits poultry farm near Vietnamese capital
 

Bird flu has struck a chicken farm outside the Vietnamese capital, a provincial veterinary official said Tuesday (March 6), raising fears the virus will spread to Hanoi and through the country's north.

Birds started dying on February 16 on the farm 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of the city, and authorities culled 550 animals last week, said Nguyen Huy Dang, head of the Ha Tay provincial animal health department.

Dang said test results have shown the culled birds were positive to the H5N1 virus and that unvaccinated flocks had already been killed last week.

Chicken and duck farms in Ha Tay province are major suppliers of poultry products for Hanoi, but Dang said authorities had done their best to contain the outbreak and stop it from hitting the city.

Meanwhile, in northeastern Quang Ninh province, officials said avian influenza may have struck a poultry farm in Dong Trieu district, where 66 chicken and four ducks died last week.

About 70 chickens and ducks, out of the farm's 240 birds, died last Thursday, said Nguyen Van Bay, deputy head of the provincial animal health department, adding they have already culled the whole flock and awaiting for the test results.

Vietnam was first hit by bird flu in late 2003, and the virus killed 42 people in the country over the next two years.

The communist country launched mass culls and vaccination campaigns and has reported no new human cases since November 2005.

The virus made a comeback this winter, hitting poultry farms in southern Vietnam in December and January.

Those outbreaks were contained, but the virus has been found over the past week on farms in Hai Duong province in the north and Vinh Long province in the south.