Vietnam on alert as bird flu spreads
HANOI - Vietnamese and United Nations animal health experts have warned of a heightened bird flu threat after the virus was detected in poultry flocks in the country's south and centre in recent weeks.
Vietnam has reported no new human cases since late 2005 after suffering 42 deaths in two years, but cold weather, bird migration and an upcoming seasonal peak in chicken consumption all increase the risk of a resurgence, they said Wednesday.
Avian influenza has broken out among ducks or chicken in 26 communes across southern Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Hau Giang provinces over the past month, causing thousands of bird deaths and the slaughter of nearly 30,000 animals.
Officials have since vaccinated 700,000 illegally raised fowl not covered in twice-yearly vaccination drives, said Deputy Agriculture Minister Bui Ba Bong.
The disease was also detected in early December in a spot check in Vietnam's central Quang Nam province where three quarters of a sample of 30 unvaccinated ducks tested positive, animal health officials said.
Hoang Van Nam, the deputy head of the national animal health department, said bird flu alerts had been issued for five more northern and central provinces.
"We are very concerned about the test results in Quang Nam," he told AFP. "We have carried out tests and will do more, but the situation is worrisome."
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it was "closely monitoring" the situation and testing virus samples, but stressed there was no cause for panic as most of Vietnam's poultry had been vaccinated.
"It looks as if there is no sign that the vaccination is breaking down, and the government is doing everything to maintain the impetus and to continue to vaccinate," said FAO country chief Andrew Speedy.
But he said the bird flu risk rose in colder winter months and around the traditional Tet New Year's celebrations in mid-February, when chicken consumption and the movement of people across the country peak.
The FAO's technical advisor on bird flu in Vietnam, Jeff Gilbert, said the latest cases "again confirm that the virus is circulating, and to say we have vaccinated enough or that the problem is over would be absolutely premature."
Bird flu's global human death toll of 157 since 2003 is low compared to that of many other diseases, but epidemiologists fear the virus could mutate to more easily spread to or between people and trigger a human pandemic.
Gilbert said that the FAO had offered its support to Vietnam at a meeting Wednesday and would test samples of the virus in its regional laboratories to check for changes at the molecular level.
Vietnam has achieved praise for containing H5N1 through mass culls and vaccinations, bans on live poultry markets and public education. The
World Bank this week announced 10 million dollars in additional funding to fight bird flu.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung this month ordered 11 ministers to head bird flu control task forces across Vietnam, and the government has launched a nationwide campaign for January to enforce food and farm hygiene.
By Frank Zeller - Agence France Presse - January 3, 2007.
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