May 10, 2006

Vietnam tries its hand at bird flu vaccine production

Vietnam is launching a trial production of poultry vaccines against the bird flu virus, Veterinary Institute's director Truong Van Dung said Tuesday (May 9).

The Veterinary Institute has instructed the Central Veterinary Medicine Company to make 200,000 doses of H5N1 vaccines, the director said.

Research work is ongoing to find methods to vaccinate ducks early. Bird flu vaccination seems to be most effective when ducks are vaccinated when they are one day old.

Vietnam has so far this year vaccinated over 70 million fowls in 57 cities and provinces, the ministry's Department of Animal Health said.

The country plans to complete the first batch of vaccination by early June and conduct a second vaccination on the same batch between August and October.

Since early 2006, Vietnam has imported 150 million doses of poultry vaccines from China, the department's director Bui Quang Anh said last week, noting that more would be arriving in Vietnam this month.

Vietnam imported 350 million doses of bird flu vaccines from China and a small amount from other countries last year, he said.

The country has detected no new outbreaks of bird flu among fowls since mid-December 2005.

Local authorities have been urged to take stricter control over poultry slaughter, transport and trade activities and ensure compliance of a temporary suspension of waterfowl hatching by farmers.