*Bird flu re-emerges in central Vietnam, kills ducks*

06 May 2007 04:23:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

HANOI, May 6 (Reuters) - Bird flu has been found on a duck farm in
central Vietnam, the first outbreak of the disease in more than a month,
the government said on Sunday.

Tests showed the H5N1 virus had killed 160 ducklings in the farm in Nghe
An province on May 1, the Agriculture Ministry's Animal Health
Department said in a report. It said the 40-day-old ducklings had not
been vaccinated against bird flu.

By Friday another 90 ducks died in the same farm, prompting health
workers to slaughter the remaining 360 fowl, the report said.

The H5N1 virus has killed 42 people in the Southeast Asian country since
it re-surfaced in Asia in late 2003 but Vietnam has had no human cases
since November 2005.

The virus flared up again among poultry in the south late last year and
earlier this year.

Last month the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged Vietnam to
accelerate poultry vaccinations and target more ducks in its anti-bird
flu campaign.

Waterfowl are a reservoir for the disease and can spread the H5N1 virus
in their droppings as they roam through rice fields. Ducks often show no
symptoms of sickness, making it harder to contain the virus.

The Animal Health Department said 60 of Vietnam's 64 provinces have so
far finished or nearly completed the first of a two-phase vaccination
campaign which targets up to 90 percent of the country's poultry stock.

The virus has killed 170 people in 11 countries, most of them in
Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the WHO.