A Boeing 737-300 transporter carrying 15 tons of China-made bird flu vaccine left Harbin for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tuesday morning.

The special plane is set to land in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday afternoon after seven hours of flight, said Zhao Xuchen, deputy general manager of the cargo and passenger transportation sales company of the Heilongjiang Provincial Airport Management Group in northeast China.

He said Taiping International Airport in the provincial capital Harbin opened a green passage to facilitate customs clearance of the vaccine. The temperature inside cabin has to be between four and eight degrees Celsius to keep the vaccine alive.

The vaccine is produced by Harbin Weike Biological Technology Development Company under the Harbin Veterinary Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Sources with the Harbin institute said altogether 43 tons of the vaccine will be flown to Vietnam and two more shipments will be arranged within days.