March 16, 2006

Vietnam to start vaccinating ducks against bird flu 

In an attempt to prevent bird flu from re-emerging in Vietnam, the government has decided Mar 14 to vaccinate its white-feathered ducks, similar to small geese, against the disease.

Vaccination will be conducted among about 7 million white-feathered ducks nationwide, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said, as 40 percent of the fowls vaccinated in a trial developed immunity to bird flu.

As such, agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat estimates that should all the ducks be vaccinated, at least 3 million will have immunity to bird flu.

Vietnam will also continue to vaccinate chickens and common ducks all across the country in the next few weeks, but only against the pathogenic H5N1 strain instead of both H5N1 and H5N2 as it did last year, the minister added.

In 2005, bird flu hit the country's 44 cities and provinces, resulting in the culling of about 4.8 million poultry, which is over 2 percent of the fowl population. Vietnam, home to 8 million poultry-raising households, now has a poultry population of nearly 220 million.

It has not detected any bird flu outbreak in the past three months.