June 15, 2007
Bird flu claims 17th province in Vietnam
A duck farm in northern Ha Tinh Province in Vietnam has been struck by the deadly H5N1 virus, bringing the country's total bird-flu affected provinces to 17.
A total of 350 out of 2,500 ducks reportedly died Thursday (June 14) in Thinh Loc Commune, Loc Ha District which was all positive of the virus, according to the local Veterinary Department.
The department culled the remaining ducks from the flock.
On the same day, the Ministry of Health's Vietnamese Veterinary Bureau reported that no fresh epidemic zones have been detected for 15 days in the bird flu-hit provinces of Quang Ninh, Dong Thap, Bac Ninh, Phu Tho, Nam Dinh, Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen, and Quang Nam.
The recurrence of the disease last month has brought forth by waterfowls in northern Red River Delta provinces as the winter-spring rice harvest has come to a close. Authorities have blamed farmers who were negligent in letting their birds feed in harvested rice fields for the outbreaks.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture has advised that consumers be extra careful over the holiday next Tuesday for the Tet Doan Ngo, a chicken and duck feast festival in which fowl trade will be prevalent, making inspections more difficult.
Bird flu has killed 42 people out of 95 known infections in Vietnam since late 2003.
Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 189 people out of 310 known cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The government has already called for vaccination of all poultry in Vietnam and has coordinated with the WHO for human and animal bird flu vaccines. The country is planning to import an additional 500 million doses of bird flu vaccines for fowls to be used in a possible outbreak for 2007/2008.
The country has so far vaccinated 139 million fowls in nearly 64 cities and provinces, including nearly 80.6 million chickens, 55 million ducks and roughly 3.5 million white- winged ducks, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Agriculture Ministry.
