February 11, 2020

Tens of thousands of poultry culled in Vietnam due to H5N6 outbreak

A Vietnam agriculture ministry official and state media said tens of thousands of poultry have been culled to prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu in the northern Vietnam, reported Reuters.

Chicken and duck farms in Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Quang Ninh provinces have been affected. 23,000 birds have been culled at 10 farms in Thanh Hoa province, 170 km south of Hanoi.

The official said other government measures to stop the spread of H5N6 include disinfecting the farms and imposing a poultry transport ban from the infected areas.

The official added that small sized bird flu outbreaks are not uncommon in Vietnam in the last five years. The country has a total poultry herd of 460 million birds.

According to Kinh Te Do Thi newspaper, the H5N6 virus has also been discovered at a poultry farm outside Hanoi. 2,300 birds have been culled.

-      Reuters