May 15, 2013

Authorities in Vietnam's south central province of Ninh Thuan have declared that the bird flu outbreak at a local farm is over. The farm raises swiftlets for profitable nests.

Tran Quoc Nam, a spokesman for the local government, told the press on May 13 that no dead swiftlets had been found at Thanh Binh Farm in Phan Rang-Thap Cham town since April 19, the day the province announced the outbreak. Tests on live swiftlets at the farm are also negative for the H5N1 virus, he said.

The province has taken sterilisation measures and vaccinated about 100,000 fowls living near the farm, according to Nam.

Ninh Thuan was the first province in Vietnam to declare a bird flu outbreak this year after tests showed about 5,000 swiftlets at Thanh Binh Farm, which died since the end of March, were positive for H5N1. As many as 10,000 swiftlets at the farm were culled afterwards.

In Vietnam, a province can declare the end of a bird flu epidemic if no case is found after 21 days following the announcement of the outbreak.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the H5N1-caused bird flu has caused at least 62 deaths among the 123 infected patients in Vietnam since 2003.

The first human fatality from H5N1 in Vietnam, in more than a year, was reported in April.

People can become infected from direct or close contact with fowl carrying the virus, which is deadly among domesticated ducks and chickens.

To combat human cases of bird flu, Vietnam has been vaccinating farmed fowl and treating infected people with the antiviral, Tamiflu.