Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City is taking preventive measures after reports that 53 storks in a large park in its outskirts are infected with bird flu virus, newspaper Saigon Liberation in Hanol reported Friday.

The city's Veterinary Bureau has asked the Suoi Tien Park to cull the 53 storks whose specimens have been tested positive to the virus, detoxificate bird cages, and isolate them to prevent potential spread of the disease.

To prevent potential outbreaks of the disease among fowls and humans, Vietnam is intensifying surveillance; management over transport, trade and import of poultry and related products at border gates; preparation for sufficient supply of relevant medicines and equipment, border quarantine activities; enhancement of public awareness about the potential relapse of bird flu, and vaccination among fowls nationwide against bird flu viruses.

Vietnam, which currently has to import bird flu vaccines for poultry, mainly from China, plans to mass use vaccines developed by itself in 2008. Two local firms have so far produced 200,000 doses of bird flu vaccines on trial basis, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

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, have 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, said the department.

Source: Xinhua