Vietnam to import more bird flu vaccines

Vietnam will import some 500 million doses of bird flu vaccines to vaccinate fowls in the 2007-2008 period, according to a local veterinary agency on Tuesday.

In January alone, the country will import 25 million doses of H5N1 vaccines and 4.5 million doses of H5N9 vaccines totaling 7 billion Vietnamese dong (437,500 U.S. dollars), said the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Bird flu spread to Thoi Binh and Phu Tan districts in southern Ca Mau province from Dec. 26-27, 2006, sickening 111 white-winged ducks (similar to ducks but bigger), and to Gia Rai district in southern Bac Lieu province on Dec. 27, 2006, affecting 35 white- winged ducks.

Vietnam has yet to vaccinate its white-winged duck population of nearly 10 million due to unavailability of suitable vaccines. It, which has already vaccinated most of chickens and ducks nationwide, has recently found that Italian H5N9 vaccines are suitable for the ducks, said the department.

Since early December 2006, bird flu has stricken 25 communes in 11 districts in the three southern provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Hau Giang. To prevent further spread of the disease, local veterinary bureaus are culling affected poultry flocks and vaccinating unvaccinated fowls, while egg hatching bases are advised to vaccine baby fowls before selling them to raisers.

Bird flu outbreaks, starting in Vietnam in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls, said the department.

Source: Xinhua