September 7, 2005

Vietnam's bird flu vaccination plan faces obstacles

Vietnam's plan to vaccinate all its poultry in time for the seasonal high demand for chicken meat, is facing obstacles with the failure of its vaccination pilot programs, which were launched in Tien Giang and Nam Dinh provinces in June.

In Tien Giang, rains and floods resulted in only 38 out of 127 communes having their flocks vaccinated. In Nam Dinh, results were better, with 3.1 million out of 4.3 million fowls vaccinated.

It has been pointed out also that the number of fowls to be vaccinated is far bigger than initially estimated and the supply of vaccines is now low.

Local health officials had planned to vaccinate about 3 million birds, but checks now show that the actual population of domestic birds is about 6 million. The country had only set aside for the nationwide campaign US$30 million dollars-which many experts say is not enough.

Another problem is that vaccinations have been limited to ducks and chickens, while quails, doves and geese are not due to unsuitable imported vaccines.

The country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had initially planned to vaccinate poultry in the remaining 12 Mekong delta provinces before Sept 10 and for other high-risk provinces to start the campaign by October.

With these new developments, the country's deputy prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung now wants the campaign completed by Nov 15, in time for the Lunar New Year Festival in early 2006.