August 3, 2004

Vietnam Reports New Bird Flu Outbreak

One more bird flu outbreak has been detected in the southern city of Can Tho in Vietnam.

All of the 600 affected chicken in a farm in the city's Phong Dien district have been killed, according to local newspaper Vietnam Agriculture on Tuesday.

Bird flu had earlier hit four other districts, affecting more than 6,000 fowls. Poultry in the districts are presently being closely monitored.

The disease has hit 11 southern localities, including Can Tho and 10 provinces of Long An, Bac Lieu, Hau Giang, Tra Vinh, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Tien Giang, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Kien Giang and Ben Tre, either killing or leading to the forced killing of nearly 63,000 poultry since late June.

As of August 2, seven out of the 11 localities were eligible for declaring the end of bird flu as no new outbreaks have been detected for 21 days.

The national anti-bird flu steering committee has just launched an anti-bird flu month in August, aiming to comprehensively deal with outbreaks, and eventually ensure that the localities are free of bird flu in September.

However, the Department of Animal Health admitted that the risk of the disease's relapse is high mainly due to potential disease sources, transportation of no-quarantined live fowls as well as the smuggling of poultry via borders.

Bird flu killed 17 percent of Vietnam's poultry population, and claimed 16 human lives during the outbreak in December 2003. A total of 43.2 million fowls nationwide either died or were culled, causing the local poultry industry to suffer direct losses of 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (82.8 million US dollars).