Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Vietnam scrambles to keep bird flu in check after recurrence
Bac Lieu province reassured authorities that they have an infected zone under control as bird flu once again surfaced, prompting experts to call for drastic measures.
The Agriculture and Rural Development Department in the southern province, one of the two localities suffering from the recurrence, on Tuesday said the infection in Hoa Binh district’s Vinh Binh commune had been brought under control.
Nearly one year since the last outbreak in Vietnam, the southern province was forced to slaughter over 1,500 fowl in the district.
Meanwhile, the other infected province, southernmost Ca Mau, still has four communes belonging to three districts dealing with the disease.
The Ca Mau government a day earlier reported some 6,000 birds had been culled.
In related news, Nguyen Ba Thanh, director of the Can Tho City’s Animal Health Center Tuesday attributed the recurrence to local government’s failures in curbing large-scale restocking and mismanagement that allowed ducks to wander freely from one region to the other.
He called for urgent vaccination of all the birds reaching 15 days old, large-scale disinfections and strict control on fowl transportation.
Just two days earlier, agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat visited the two provinces, instructing local authorities to exercise strict vigilance on illegal transportation, hatching, and purchase of poultry from infected areas and to duly punish violators.