November 8, 2007

Bird flu kills 590 ducks in northern Vietnam

The dreaded bird flu has killed 590 ducks in a northern Vietnam province, the fifth to have reported outbreaks among poultry within about a month, the government said on Wednesday (November 7).

The two-month-old ducks started dying Monday at a farm in Ha Nam province. The Animal Health Department confirmed on Wednesday that the H5N1 bird flu virus was the cause of death.

Further tests also found the H5N1 virus in samples taken from two dead chickens dumped in a river in Ha Nam province, 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Hanoi, the report said.

The case in Ha Nam brought to five the number of provinces that have bird flu outbreaks in poultry since early October. Three of the provinces are in the north, one is in the southern Mekong delta, while the fifth is in the central province of Quang Tri.

An agriculture official said floods that affected Quang Tri in the past two weeks may have helped spread the virus to nearby areas.

No human infections have been reported in Vietnam since the virus killed a teenager in early August, one of four deaths among seven Vietnamese known to have been infected this year. Since 2003, bird flu has killed 46 people in Vietnam.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 205 people out of 334 known cases, with most of the deaths in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Egypt, the World Health Organisation figures show.