January 12, 2004

Vietnam Scientists To Determine Whether Humans At Risk From Bird Flu

Vietnamese scientists are still trying to identify the strain of the bird flu which has killed at least 50,000 chickens in Vietnam.

"We have identified bird flu as the virus that killed the chickens, but we are still working to determine what type of virus" was involved, said Nguyen Van Thong, deputy director of the Veterinary Department in Hanoi.

About 1.1 million chickens and ducks have been culled in South Korea to contain a bird flu that broke out there last month. Many consumers are avoiding chicken for fear the virus is similar to the bird flu that hit Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people.

In Vietnam, researchers were examining whether the virus there could spread to other types of poultry or to humans, Thong said.

Veterinary officials in Ho Chi Minh City had earlier suspected avian cholera and another unidentified virus, but Thong ruled those out.

Farmers in the southern Mekong river delta provinces of Long An and Tien Giang have hastily sold more than 500,000 chickens recently, and at least 10% of them have died from the disease, officials have said.

A farm run by a Thai-invested company in Ha Tay province, some 40 kilometers west of Hanoi, earlier this week incinerated 81,000 chickens with bird flu, Thong said, adding it is unclear whether it was the same strain of virus that hit the Mekong Delta.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday ordered provincial authorities to incinerate all dead and sick chickens and to quarantine the affected areas, the Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper reported Friday.

He also urged Vietnamese scientists to work with foreign organizations to find a cure.