December 1, 2005

Vietnam will not totally cull all poultry
 

Vietnamese authorities said they would not totally cull all poultry in the country, which is estimated at 220 million, but continue focusing on vaccination instead.

About 1.7 million poultry have been culled in Vietnam since October, in a bid to curb the spread of H5N1 bird flu, the Rural Development and Agriculture Ministry (MADR) said.

Culling all poultry would not guarantee elimination of bird flu, since wild birds could also transmit the virus, director of the MADR Animal Husbandry Department, Hoang Kim Giao said.

He added that total culling could result in water and environmental contamination. It would also add to the government's high financial cost, in light of compensations pledged to affected farmers.