The Vietnamese government has asked for increased action to raise people's awareness and make them voluntarily join in the fight against bird flu, which has become a permanent threat to both production and human health, Vietnam News Agency reported Monday.

"The fight against bird flu is an uninterrupted war which requires great responsibilities from the entire political system, mass organizations, ministries, branches and ordinary people," said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung at the National Anti- Bird Flu Steering Committee's conference.

The conference aims to review assignments last year and to deploy tasks for this year.

At the conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said breeders have still kept poultry with other animals, which poses great threat to the spread of bird flu. He also said that many local authorities have recently neglected their duties in preventing the disease.

Bird flu, which was contained in Vietnam for almost one year, reappeared first in the southern Mekong delta last December, and then in the northern province of Hai Duong and the capital city of Hanoi.

Since bird flu first stroke Vietnam in late 2003, the country has undergone five waves of bird flu outbreaks. The fifth wave, starting in December 2006, has affected nearly 90,000 waterfowls, mainly ducts, and 12,000 chickens.

Most of the infected poultry are small flocks of ducks which have been hatched unlawfully and have not been vaccinated against bird flu viruses yet, according to the committee.

Source: Xinhua