December 22, 2006

Vietnam's farmers defying culling

Farmers trying to protect their poultry from being slaughtered may be unintentionally spreading bird flu in southern Vietnam, an animal health official warned Friday.

Some 6,000 chickens and ducklings have died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in the past two weeks in Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces, in the first reported cases of the virus in Vietnam in a year.

An animal health expert warned, meanwhile, that poultry farmers unwilling to comply with the government-ordered cull could be endangering other flocks and themselves.

When poultry farmers in the outbreak areas were told to keep their birds in their farms for culling, some farmers intentionally released their poultry into the fields, said Nguyen Ba Thanh, director of the regional animal health center in the southern city of Can Tho.

"That could further facilitate the spread of the virus," Thanh said, adding that some 2,000 birds have been culled in the latest outbreak.

Nam said about 150 more ducks have died of H5N1 in Bac Lieu province, in the villages of Muoi Chin and Muoi Bay, both within a kilometer of Ke Phong where some 5,500 one-month-old ducks and 500 chickens that died of H5N1 were discovered earlier this week.

"We expect more small scale outbreaks to occur," he said.

Although 42 people have died of H5N1 in Vietnam since late 2003, the Southeast Asian country has not reported any human infections since November 2005.