January 12, 2004

 

 

Vietnam Confirms Bird Flu

 

Vietnam confirmed the fast spreading disease that has claimed the lives of thousands of poultry as bird flu.

 

Initially, provincial officials had diagnosed the disease as chicken cholera. However the Agriculture Ministry have dismissed the preliminary findings as erroneous.

 

"We have identified the disease as the dangerous bird flu which was found in Vietnam for the first time," Mr Hoang Van Nam of the ministry-run veterinary department said.

 

Further tests would be done abroad to verify the type of bird flu and to determine if it is a threat to humans.

 

In 1997 and 1998, the H5N1 variant of avian influenza swept through Hong Kong's poultry farms, killing six people.

 

"The bird flu is a combination of sub-types under H and N and so far we have been able to identify only H5," Mr Nam said. There are 15 sub-types under H and nine under the N categories.

 

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in an official statement, ordered local governments to incinerate all chickens suspected of carrying the virus and said all farms where sick birds were found would be quarantined.

 

Chicken is widely consumed during Tet, the New Year celebration that lasts from Jan 21 to 27.

 

The Deputy Prime Minister's comments were the first official acknowledgement of the disease, two weeks after veterinarians said around 500,000 chicken had been killed in the southern provinces of Long An and Tien Giang.

 

Bird flu has also spread to the country's financial capital, Ho Chi Minh City, where some restaurants have already taken chicken off the menu.

 

Vietnam does not export chicken.

 

Checkpoints have been set up to stop farmers dumping infected chicken at southern markets.

 

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation said last Friday it was sending experts to Vietnam this week to help tackle the virus.

 

Mr Anton Rychener, the UN agency's representative in Vietnam, refused to speculate on whether the virus could be the highly contagious bird flu that struck Hong Kong in 1997, and which triggered panic in South Korea following an outbreak there last month.

 

"It is too early to say what the virus is. It is all mere speculation at the moment," he said.

 

Blood samples from infected chicken have been sent to overseas laboratories for analysis, the UN official added.