February 28, 2007

Vietnam culls 10,000 chickens in northern bird flu outbreak

Vietnam said it had already culled more than 10,000 chickens on a northern farm after several dozen of them died of bird flu earlier this month.

The chickens, on a farm in Thanh Mien district of Hai Duong province near the northern port of Haiphong, began dying on February 14, a daily online report from the national animal health department said.

The culled chickens weighing between 0.7 and 1.78 kilogrammes were all positive of the H5N1 virus, the department said.

News on the latest outbreak was officially declared anew on February 27, two weeks after the department said bird flu has been contained in the country's southern Mekong river delta after a spate of outbreaks.

The national body had been preparing to declare Vietnam bird-flu free.

The H5N1 strain has killed 42 people in the country since late 2003, but Vietnam has reported no human cases of bird flu since November 2005.

According to the World Health Organisation, 274 people have been tested positive to avian influenza worldwide, 167 of whom have died.

Health experts have warned the H5N1 virus could lead to a global pandemic if it were to mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans.