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The Vietnam News

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Ho Chi Minh bans all poultry raising in bid to fight bird flu

HANOI - All poultry raising has been banned in Vietnam's southern business capital Ho Chi Minh City this year in order to limit the risk of the transmission of bird flu to humans. "As from Feb 14, small households raising chickens in 11 districts inside the city must slaughter their chickens or bring them out after having registered with the animal health department," said the deputy chairman of the city's People's Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, in a decision dated Feb 7. A similar decision had already been taken for ducks earlier this year.

"Those who don't choose either one of the two above mentioned methods will not receive any support," he said while urging local authorities to cull all the city's poultry and water fowl between February 18 and the end of 2005. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided not to have any official announcement of the end to the current bird flu epidemic which returned to the country in late 2004.

"This year, we will not announce an end to the bird flu epidemic as it is not a new one," said Hoang Van Nam, Head of the Ministry's epidemiology department. "It is a continuation of the bird flu which hit Vietnam since late 2003," he explained, saying provinces without any new outbreaks within 21 days of the order taking effect could resume the transportation of poultry.

Vietnam declared last October that it had brought its latest outbreak of avian influenza under control. It first made such an announcement in March 2004 but had to admit later that the declaration had been premature. Experts say avian influenza has entrenched itself in much of Asia and is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Seven of the country's 34 provinces and cities that were fighting the disease had not registered any new cases in poultry for more than 21 days, according to the animal health department

"We have proposed the Agriculture Ministry to allow the raising of new chicken in bird flu hit provinces after 60 days with no new outbreaks," Nam said. Since the start of the latest outbreak, more than 1.5 million birds have been killed by the disease or destroyed to try to stop the spread of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Twelve people died in Thailand and 20 in Vietnam during an initial outbreak in late 2003 and 2004. Another 13 have died in Vietnam since the end of December including a Cambodian woman. A regional meeting discussing the fight against the virus will be held in Ho Chi Minh City from February 23 to 25, under the sponsorship of the United Nations FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

Agence France Presse - February 16, 2005