Bird flu has killed fowls in Vietnam's southern Kien Giang province, raising the total number of localities in the country hit by the disease to four, according to a local veterinary agency on Tuesday.

Specimens from dead poultry in the province's two districts have been tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5N1, said the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Bird flu killed 40 ducks in Go Quao district on Jan. 6, and 30 others in Vinh Thuan district on Jan. 7. To date, nearly 1,800 ducks in the two districts have been culled to prevent the disease from spreading.

Bird flu has, since early December 2006, stricken 41 communes in 17 districts in the four southern provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Hau Giang and Kien Giang, either killing or leading to the forced culling of more than 42,000 poultry. Specimens from many healthy unvaccinated ducks in the southern Mekong Delta have been tested positive to H5N1, according to the department.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong told reporters recently that the risk of bird flu spreading in the delta is very high.

"As a rule, some one month after the first outbreak was spotted, the disease will spread throughout the Mekong Delta, and it will hit the northern region about one month and a half after that," he said.

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

Source: Xinhua