Vietnam to import bird flu poultry vaccines from Russia

Vietnam will import 30-50 million doses of bird flu poultry vaccines from Russia in the coming time, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Tuesday.

Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working with the Russian side about the purchase of bird flu vaccines which will be used among fowls nationwide late 2006 and early 2007.

To be more active in vaccination, Vietnam plans to use bird flu vaccines developed by itself in the coming years. Two local firms have so far produced 200,000 doses of vaccines on trial basis, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam has so far this year vaccinated nearly 134 million fowls nationwide. Testing 10,621 specimens from vaccinated chickens and ducks indicated that 75 percent of the fowls have developed capacity of not contracting bird flu virus strain H5.

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 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