As no new bird flu outbreaks have been spotted in Vietnam for seven months, some provinces have become negligent on vaccinating fowls, local media reported Thursday.

Some provinces have slowed down the vaccination, or even stopped the work after vaccinating poultry for the first time, although the fowls should be vaccinated twice, which might result in higher risk of bird flu relapse, said local newspaper Labor.

Due to the sluggishness, 57.9 million doses of bird flu vaccines are now in stock. Of the stockpiled doses, 6.7 million are in central Thanh Hoa province, over 3.1 million in southern Tien Giang province, and 1.9 million in southern Dong Thap province, the newspaper quoted reports of the Finance Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam has vaccinated 131.4 million fowls nationwide with total expenses of 73.8 billion Vietnamese dong (over 4.6 million U. S. dollars) so far this year, according to the ministry's Department of Animal Health.

Bird flu, starting to hit Vietnam in December 2003, killed and led to the forced culling of 43.9 million poultry nationwide in 2004, and nearly four million in 2005. No new outbreaks of bird flu has been seen since December 2005, said the Department of Animal Health.

Source: Xinhua