Bird flu hits poultry farm near Vietnamese capital
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday March 6, 2:26 PM
*Bird flu hits poultry farm near Vietnamese capital*
Bird flu has struck a chicken farm outside the Vietnamese capital, a
provincial veterinary official said Tuesday, raising fears the virus
will spread to Hanoi and through the country's north.
Birds started dying on February 16 on the farm 40 kilometres (25 miles)
southeast of the city, and authorities culled 550 animals last week,
said Nguyen Huy Dang, head of the Ha Tay provincial animal health
department.
"Test results showing they were positive to the H5N1 virus strain were
only available late Monday," he said, adding that the entire flock of
unvaccinated birds had already been killed last Tuesday.
Chicken and duck farms in Ha Tay province are major suppliers of poultry
products for Hanoi, but Dang said authorities had done their best to
contain the outbreak and stop it from hitting the city.
"We have surrounded and quarantined the area carefully," he said. "We
can assure everyone that we have done our best to stop the spread of the
virus."
Meanwhile, in northeastern Quang Ninh province, officials said avian
influenza may have struck a poultry farm in Dong Trieu district, where
66 chicken and four ducks died last week.
"About 70 chickens and ducks, out of the farm's 240 birds, died last
Thursday," said Nguyen Van Bay, deputy head of the provincial animal
health department. "We culled the whole flock and are awaiting test
results."
Vietnam was first hit by bird flu in late 2003, and the virus killed 42
people in the country over the next two years.
The communist country launched mass culls and vaccination campaigns and
has reported no new human cases since November 2005.
The virus made a comeback this winter, hitting poultry farms in southern
Vietnam in December and January.
Those outbreaks were contained, but the virus has been found over the
past week on farms in Hai Duong province in the north and Vinh Long
province in the south.