UN experts to help Vietnam tackle killer chicken virus
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation said today it was sending experts to Vietnam to help tackle a mysterious virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of chickens and spread to other animals.
Anton Rychener, the UN agency's representative in Vietnam, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would make a formal request for FAO assistance on Monday.
"We are keeping on top of the situation and will send experts into the country to help the ministry tackle the matter. The first, a veterinary expert in communicable livestock diseases, will arrive next week," he said.
Rychener refused to speculate on whether the virus could be the highly contagious bird flu that killed six people in 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. But if it had been bird flu we would probably have known by now," he said.
Blood samples from infected chickens have been sent to overseas laboratories for analysis, the UN official added.
The mystery disease first emerged last week in the southern provinces of Tien Giang and Long An, but subsequently spread to other Mekong Delta provinces and to Ho Chi Minh City as a result of panic selling by local farmers.
Worryingly for the authorities, outbreaks of the virus have been reported in the north of the country, and it has also spread to other animals.
At least 100,000 chickens in Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc and Hoa Binh provinces have died, the Thanh Nien newspaper said today.
An unknown number of ducks and pigs in the Mekong Delta provinces of Can Tho, Ben Tre and Vinh Long have also died from the same virus, it added.
In an urgent communique issued yesterday, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai instructed provinces and cities battling the epidemic to ban the transport of all poultry and destroy all infected animals.
Local authorities in the infected areas, which have been placed under quarantine, were also ordered to intensify their monitoring of markets and farms.
Agriculture Ministry officials have no accurate death toll, but say about 2.5 tonnes of chickens felled by the virus have been buried in specially dug pits in Ho Chi Minh City alone over the last few days.
Agence France Presse - January 09, 2004.
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