Bird flu has stricken southern Hau Giang province, raising the total number of localities in Vietnam to three, Central Vietnam Television reported Thursday evening.

The disease either killed or sickened over 1,100 ducks in two flocks in the province's Long My district on Dec. 26. Specimens from the dead waterfowls that had not been vaccinated against bird flu viruses have been tested positive to virus strain H5N1.

Early this month, bird flu hit the two southern provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, resulting in the forced culling of more than 11, 000 chickens and ducks so far.

On Dec. 28, Cao Duc Phat, Vietnamese minister of agriculture and rural development and chairman of the Central Steering Committee on Bird Flu Prevention, asked local steering committees and localities nationwide to focus their anti-disease activities on surveillance, detoxification, vaccination, quarantine, and control over transport and trade of poultry and related products, the TV report said.

They have been tasked to conduct bird flu surveillance at household level to early spot outbreaks, detoxification at high- risk areas, farms, slaughterhouses and markets, and vaccination among unvaccinated fowls, including those unlawfully hatched and raised by residents; resume operation of domestic animal quarantine; establish mobile quarantine checkpoints at main roads and waterways; tighten management over the transport and trade of fowls and related products; and intensify cross-border poultry smuggling.

Bird flu outbreaks starting in Vietnam 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 the country was in December 2005.

Vietnam has detected 93 bird flu patients, including 42 fatalities, in 32 localities, the country's Health Ministry said on Dec. 27, noting that it has seen no new human cases of infections since mid-November 2005.

Source: Xinhua