Vietnam's southern Mekong delta has basically contained bird flu, local newspaper Youth on Thursday quoted a local official as saying.

All samples from suspected poultry in provinces in the delta such as Dong Thap and An Giang have been tested negative to bird flu virus strain H5N1, said Nguyen Ba Thanh, director of the Regional Animal Health Center under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development based in southern Can Tho city.

Southern localities were hot spots in previous bird flu outbreaks starting in December 2003. Some months ago, Vietnam prioritized vaccinating fowls in southern localities, fearing that bird flu would break out in the southern region first and then spread to the northern as it did last year. For this reason, some local veterinary officers said the vaccination could have worked.

Vietnam is actively vaccinating fowls nationwide against bird flu viruses. Over 153 million poultry turns (each dose for a fowl being considered one turn, two doses for the same fowl regarded as two turns) have been vaccinated so far, the ministry's Animal Health Department said.

A total of 20 localities nationwide have detected poultry deaths since Oct. 1. However, recent tests have showed that fowls in Dong Thap are not infected with bird flu viruses. Fowl deaths have been recently found in Dong Trieu and Uong Bi districts of northern Quang Ninh province, but testing results have yet to come out.

Hanoi and southern Bac Lieu province have met criteria for announcing an end to bird flu outbreaks (detecting no new affected spots for at least three weeks). Therefore, the current number of bird flu-hit localities, all in the northern and central regions, is only 16.

Now, 163 communes of 67 districts in Bac Giang, Quang Nam, Thanh Hoa, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ninh Binh, Hai Phong, Quang Ngai, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Son La, Hoa Binh, Thai Binh, Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen and Cao Bang are facing bird flu outbreaks, according to the department on Thursday. On Nov. 23, up to 17 affected spots were detected in the four northern provinces of Thanh Hoa, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh and Thai Nguyen.

Since early last month, Vietnam has culled over 1.1 million fowls. The fowls were not only infected ones but also healthy ones, because Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and central Da Nang city have decided to stop raising poultry in their inner areas this month.

Source: Xinhua