Vietnam to lift ban on hatching, restocking waterfowl amid bird flu outbreak
HANOI - Vietnam will lift a ban on raising ducks and geese despite a fresh outbreak of bird flu in the country's north, officials said Tuesday.
Beginning Thursday, farmers will be allowed to resume hatching and restocking waterfowl, said Bui Ba Bong, vice minister of agriculture. The government imposed the ban in 2005 in a bid to prevent the spread of bird flu because waterfowl can carry the deadly H5N1 virus without showing symptoms.
That ban, however, was largely ignored by many farmers who continued raising waterfowl.
Unvaccinated waterfowl were partly blamed for a bird flu outbreak among poultry that spread rapidly across eight southern Mekong Delta provinces in January, killing or forcing the slaughter of about 40,000 birds. It was the first outbreak to hit Vietnam in a year.
A vaccine does not exist for one-day-old ducklings as it does for one-day-old chicks, increasing the risk because ducks must wait until they are 14 days old before they can be immunized. Many are typically shipped to markets prior to that age.
Officials on Monday confirmed that bird flu has now spread to northern Vietnam, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 10,000 chicks at a farm in Hai Duong province near Hanoi nearly two weeks ago.
Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat on Tuesday urged local authorities to remain vigilant against the bird flu virus.
"The outbreak in Hai Duong province showed that the bird flu virus is still everywhere in the country," Phat said. "The virus will attack in areas where there are loopholes."
The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed at least 167 people worldwide, including 42 in Vietnam, since it began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
Experts worry the virus may mutate into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
The Associated Press - February 27, 2007.
Bird flu hits Vietnam's first northern locality
Bird flu has killed over 100 chickens in Hai Duong province, making it Vietnam's first northern locality stricken by the disease in the 2006-2007 period, local newspaper Youth reported Tuesday.
The disease broke out in a farm with more than 10,000 chickens in Doan Tung commune, Thanh Mien district, Hai Duong on Feb. 16, killing over 100 fowls, the newspaper quoted Dong Van Chuc, head of the provincial Veterinary Bureau, as saying.
According to initial tests by the bureau, the dead chickens were infected with bird flu virus strain H5N1. It has culled all the flock of over 10,000 chickens, and disinfected the farms and surrounding areas.
The new outbreak in Hai Duong made the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development postpone its plan to declare, on Feb. 27, an end to the disease at national scale, the newspaper said.
On Feb. 13, Vietnam's National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention announced that no new outbreak of bird flu had been reported in the country in the previous 21 days.
Since mid-December 2006, bird flu has been reported in eight southern localities: Can Tho city and Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Vinh Long, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Hau Giang and Kien Giang provinces. The Department of Animal Health under the agriculture ministry has confirmed bird flu outbreaks in the eight localities, but yet to recognize the latest outbreak in Hai Duong.
Bird flu, starting to hit Vietnam in December 2003, has killed and led to the forced culling of millions of poultry in the country.
Xinhua - February 27, 2007.
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