Bird flu, starting to strike Vietnam in late 2003, has prompted the country to re-zone its fowl breeding sector with focus on establishing large concentrated farms, slaughterhouses and markets.

Vietnam, in which poultry used to be raised almost everywhere, both rural and urban areas, even adjacent to houses, has already banned the breeding of fowls in inner areas of major cities and towns. The ban has been enforced in such big localities as Hanoi capital, northern Ha Long city, southern Ho Chi Minh City, and central Nha Trang city. The country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked other localities to apply the ban no later than 2007.

Under the ministry's stipulation, farms with 500 breeding hens upward or at least 1,000 commodity fowls must be built far way from residential areas, schools, national roads and hospitals, while raising waterfowls freely in fields or canals without cages and fences are prohibited. Egg-hatching facilities must be at least 500m away from animal raising areas and houses.

Seeing that bird flu had spread very quickly among freely- raised fowls, especially ducks, and that it was very difficult to control the disease or develop the animal raising sector when poultry were bred at small scale in a scattered way among households, the ministry is promoting the three modes of poultry breeding: industry, semi-industry and farming household with focus on the first two modes.

The ministry is encouraging a number of farming households with suitable conditions to upgrade their fowl production mode to the semi-industry one. In the short term, it is assisting fowl raisers in localities with large poultry populations, such as northern Ha Tay province and southern Tien Giang province to turn to the semi- industrial mode.

Besides restructuring the fowl production, Vietnam is re-zoning poultry distribution and slaughtering systems. The agriculture ministry and the Trade Ministry have asked cities nationwide to construct concentrated slaughterhouses in proper locations to eventually abolish small and scattered slaughterhouses in their inner areas.

Specifically, the construction of concentrated slaughterhouses in the cities and towns of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Hue, Can Tho, Bien Hoa, Nha Trang, Thu Dau Mot, Hai Duong, Ha Long, Ha Dong, Thanh Hoa, Vinh and Thai Nguyen must be completed before 2007. The deadline for other cities and towns is no later than 2010.

The two ministries have also instructed cities and towns to abolish live fowl markets in their inner areas, and build poultry markets far way from markets trading other products. Fowls and related products circulated in the market must undergo quarantine, and they must be transported in special-use vehicles, not simple means.

To prevent potential spread of bird flu and ensure sustainable development of the local animal raising sector, Vietnam is intensifying surveillance of the production, provision and use of baby fowls. Breeding facilities must ensure the quality of baby poultry, while the poultry in the market must be certified by competent animal health agencies.

Now, Vietnam is encouraging both domestic and foreign enterprises to engage in raising fowls on industrial scale and processing them in modern plants. Some foreign companies have shown interest in building poultry processing facilities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The agriculture ministry has recently completed a scheme on re- zoning poultry raising nationwide in the year of 2006-2010 period with an estimated cost of 670 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (42.1 million U.S. dollars). By implementing the scheme, the local fowl raising sector can make production value of around 20 trillion VND (over 1.2 billion dollars) in 2010, the ministry estimated.

Vietnam had a total poultry population of 254 million by late 2002, and it has annually grown by an average of 6.5 percent. Bird flu outbreaks, starting in the country in December 2003, killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls.

The last outbreak of bird flu among poultry in Vietnam was in December 2005, the ministry said.

Source: Xinhua