March 19, 2004

 

 

Vietnam To Import 12 Million Poultry

 

Poultry producers in Vietnam will import up to 12 million breeding ducks and geese to replenish stocks at poultry farms devastated by bird flu, the agriculture ministry says.

 

Hoang Kim Giao, deputy director of the agriculture department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the birds would be bought from countries that are free of the disease, such as France.

 

"But we have to wait until Vietnam declares itself free from the epidemic before starting our import plan," he said.

 

Most of the affected duck and goose farms are in the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City and its vast suburbs, where authorities ordered a thorough cull of all poultry, not just chickens.

 

The city declared itself free of bird flu on Tuesday but said that until chicken farms were restocked, chicken would also have to be imported from abroad to meet the culinary demands of its nearly 10 million people.

 

Outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza have been detected in 57 out of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities since the beginning of the year, resulting in the deaths or culling of more than 38 million birds.

 

Fifteen people have died from the disease, making it in human terms the worst affected of the eight Asian countries where H5N1 has been detected. Eight people have died in Thailand.

 

The Vietnamese government says it has "basically" brought the epidemic under control and will officially declare that it has been eradicated on March 30.

 

However, the Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that Vietnam is not yet clear of bird flu and should not rush to replenish its poultry stocks.

 

Anton Rychener, head of the UN agency's operations in the communist nation, said last week he was worried that Hanoi may be sweeping the disease under the carpet.

 

"Information sharing between the international community and the Vietnamese government has been less than satisfactory over the past month," he said.

 

Besides Vietnam and Thailand, H5N1 infections have also broken out in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos and South Korea.