Vietnam is producing poultry vaccines against bird flu virus strain H5N1 on a trial basis, Vietnam News Agency reported Tuesday.

The Veterinary Institute under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has instructed the Central Veterinary Medicine Company to make 200,000 doses of H5N1 vaccines, the agency quoted the institute's director Truong Van Dung as saying.

He said the institute has also researched into how to vaccinate ducks at younger age. If ducks are vaccinated against H5N1 as early as they are just one day old, it would facilitate bird flu prevention.

Vietnam has so far this year vaccinated over 70 million fowls in 57 cities and provinces nationwide, the ministry's Department of Animal Health said, noting that the country plans to complete the first batch of vaccination among 120 million poultry by early June, and conduct the second batch on the same fowls between August and October.

Since early 2006, Vietnam has imported 150 million doses of poultry vaccines against H5N1 from China, the department's director Bui Quang Anh told Xinhua last week, noting that additional 150 million doses will arrive in Vietnam this month.

Vietnam imported 350 million doses of bird flu vaccines from China, and a small amount from a couple of other countries last year, he said.

Vietnam has detected no new outbreaks of bird flu among fowls since the last outbreak was reported in northern Cao Bang province in mid-December 2005.

Source: Xinhua