October 18, 2004

Vietnam Reports New Bird Flu Outbreak
 

A new bird flu outbreak has surfaced in southern Vietnam, raising renewed fears in the country, officials said on Saturday.

Authorities in the southern province of Long An have culled more than 2,300 chickens after about 250 birds from two farms in a village there died from the disease on September 30, said Nguyen Duy Long, head of the province's animal health bureau.

The entire village has been disinfected and the provincial government has banned the sale and transportation of poultry to or from the affected district for 30 days in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading, he said.

No additional outbreaks have been reported since then, Long said. Long An, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, was one of the worst-hit provinces in earlier bird flu outbreaks.

Bird flu has killed or forced the cull of more than 43 million poultry in Vietnam.