Vietnam sees no bird flu outbreaks

Vietnam has spotted no new bird flu outbreak over the past three weeks, announced a local animal health agency Monday.

Ha Giang and Cao Bang in the northern region on Sunday became the last two provinces of Vietnam meeting criteria for declaring their territory free of the disease (detecting no new outbreak for at least three weeks), said the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Since Oct. 1, 2005, a total of 21 cities and provinces of Vietnam have been stricken by bird flu, which has killed and led to the forced killing of roughly 4 million fowls, the department said.

The Vietnamese government has instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Health to make greater efforts so that the country will see no bird flu reoccurrence among poultry and humans in 2006. It has recently allocated additional funds of over 158.5 billion Vietnamese dong ( nearly 10 million U.S. dollars) to the two ministries and localities nationwide to prevent the reoccurrence.

Recently, the government instructed the agriculture ministry to remove a ban on the import of processed poultry products, which was in place in late October 2005. The government is considering the possibility of abolishing a ban on the import of live fowls and eggs from unaffected countries.

In late October 2005, the ministry decided to cease import of all kinds of poultry, including ornamental birds, and related products between November 2005 and March 2006.

Source: Xinhua